Louis Golambos’
new biography Eisenhower: Becoming the Leader of the Free World
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, 296
pages, $23.65, 25.58)
presents a picture of Dwight David Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth
President of the United States, from the perspective his career as it
prepared him for becoming Supreme Allied
Commander of American forces in Europe during World War II, which
propelled him into the presidency, succeeding Harry Truman in 1952
and serving as President until 1960. As a general, during World War
II, he was widely, and justly, credited with having used superior
organizational and political
skills to coordinate allied efforts towards ultimate and complete
victory, while garnering the recognition and popularity to achieve a
huge electoral victory in 1952. As president, he again balanced a
variety of national and international interests to lead America back
towards peace while establishing the military might that staved off
war with Soviet Russia. Furthermore, he coordinated efforts to bring
the Korean conflict to its lingering conclusion, despite never being
able to broker more than an armistice there. Most
prominent in the biography is Golambos’ emphasis on Eisenhower’s
preparation for and assumption of leadership, while his domestic and
personal life is downplayed.
Golambos
emphasizes the development of Eisenhower’s character growing up in
relative poverty in Abilene, Kansas where his father was an angry,
disappointed smart person who never achieved the social or economic
position he thought he deserved, leading
to an often violent approach to discipline with his six sons.
Meanwhile his mother, Ida,
was a deeply religious, warm, effective mother who dealt lovingly and
thoughtfully
with her developing sons. According to Golumbus, Ike’s early career
at West Point and in the Army was dominated by the conflict between
his two contrasting parents, leading to a strong and effective
leadership style with his subordinates but to his having a difficult
time dealing with authority at West Point and
later which, in
his early Army career, retarded
his advancement.
His
slow rise in the post war Army was worsened
by his resistance to authority, often showing a temper he sought
throughout his career to control. Early, he showed himself to be a
prescient analyst of the future needs and directions of the Army,
often rejected by superior officers trained in the pre-war
environment of horses and then trench warfare. Eisenhower understood
and promoted the importance of the tank as the coming major offensive
weapon against the resistance of his superior officers, leading the
retarding of
his advancement. His assignments often emphasized training positions
which also allowed him to coach football, but kept him as a staff
officer. Meanwhile Douglas
MacArthur and others who had
earned combat stars, moved
up the Army hierarchy.
He
was lucky to be noticed by General Fox Connor who became his and
Patton’s mentor. Conner
mentored Ike as his Chief of Staff in Panama. He had the qualities to
teach Ike how to manage the bureaucracy above him by attention to
detail while developing confidence in his own ability to lead. He
gained greater responsibility and was assigned to training tank
troops under George S, Patton who was in Pershing’s command. Sent
to train tank officers in Gettysburg, he continued to rise, but
without distinction. He was deemed by
his superiors to treat
“others with respect and gave careful attention to their needs. He
demanded discipline without being petty.” A pretty good description
of the parenting he had received from his mother. Ike’s
rise in the Army depended upon insights from two mentor/sponsors who
recognized in him qualities not readily apparent to others. Fox
Conner during the period between WWI and WWII and General George C.
Marshall’s appointing him to be the top general in the planning for
the invasion of Europe, which, at the time seemed to be a “stunning”
move on Marshall’s part.
This
book contains important lessons about leadership within a bureaucracy
that rising or potential leaders should learn if they are to succeed.
The book has significant relevance to those who would seek advanced
leadership in any setting – business, schools, politics, or the
military. The progress of Ike’s career and the Golumbus’ account
of his weaknesses and strengths point to skills which should be
emphasized in leadership programs in graduate school as well as
learned by potential mentors and those seeking leadership themselves.
Golumbus’ skill in relating these lessons to the historical
herky-jerky prograss of Ike’s career is carefully structured and
presented in such a way as to make it palatable to all the but the
most heedless people who find themselves stymied in their ambitions.
At
the close of the war Eisenhower accepted the presidency of Columbia
University, a role he was totally unsuited for, while preparing for
his run at the presidency. In assessing Ike’s role as president,
Golumbos points
to his achieving world peace and insuring American prosperity, while
developing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to resist Soviet
expansion in eastern Europe. Eisenhower’s entire career path had
prepared him to use guile, charm, and power in equal proportions to
maintain the U.S. at the top of world influence. He spent lavishly on
retaining military strength while campaigning ceaselessly for peace,
all with his world famous Eisenhower grin.
The
book contains only one
mention of Ike’s relationship to his driver Kay Summersby, but
there’s a longer and more useful note that
helps redress that oversight. Also, his deteriorating relationship
with his wife, Mamie, who became a difficult alcoholic as she aged,
is hardly discussed in the text, which focuses very successfully on
Ike’s developing leadership skills, his ability to work across a
wide range of personalities, organizational goals, and systems to
achieve what Golambos calls a “middle way.”
Louis Golambos
Louis
Golambos is professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University. He edited
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower,
a massive twenty-four volume collection.
Eisenhower
is often seen as a plodder who emerged from a very long development
period, rising to the demands of command during World War II and then
rode his fame to two terms as President. He is revealed. Eisenhower: Becoming the Leader of the Free World (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, 296 pages, $23.65, 25.58) in this very
thorough account of his professional military and political life, as
a talented leader, able to encourage subordinates to obtain the best
from them with a vision far greater than he is often given credit for
having. Almost one third of the text is devoted to references and
extensive notes. Golumbos has made a substantial contribution to
understanding of this important military and political leader of the
second half of the twentieth century. I read the book as an electron
pre-publication copy provided by the publisher by Edelwiess: Beyondthe Treeline. I read it on my Kindle app.
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