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HarperCollins
August 2007
On Sale: August 1, 2007
800 pages
ISBN: 0060756659
EAN: 9780060756659
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography | Non-Fiction History
A big, ambitious, and enthralling new biography of
Dwight D. Eisenhower, full of fascinating details and
anecdotes, which places particular emphasis on his
brilliant generalship and leadership in World War Two, and
provides, with the advantage of hindsight, a far more
acute analysis of his character and personality than any
that has previously been available, reaching the
conclusion that he was perhaps America's greatest general
and one of America's best presidents, a man who won the
war and thereafter kept the peace. IKE starts with
the story of D–Day, the most critical moment in
America's history. It was Hitler's last chance to win the
war –– he had the means to destroy the troops
on the beaches, but he failed to react quickly enough. The
one man who would have reacted quickly and decisively had
he been on the spot, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, was home
on leave and didn't arrive back at his headquarters until
it was too late. It was Ike's plan, Ike's decision, Ike's
responsibility. He alone, among all the Allied generals,
could win or lose the war in one day, and knew it.
But of course there is more to this book than military
history. It is a full biography of a remarkable man,
ambitious, a late starter, a brilliant leader of men and
perhaps the only American general who could command such a
difficult coalition, and win the respect of not only his
own soldiers, but also those of Great Britain and France,
and lead them to a triumphant victory. It is also
the story of a remarkable family. Ike grew up in Abilene,
Kansas, and the Eisenhowers were Mennonites, who, like the
Amish, were deeply committed pacifists, so it is ironic
that he went to West Point and became a general, to his
mother's horror. It is as well the portrait of a
tumultuous and often difficult marriage, for Mamie was
every bit as stubborn and forceful as her husband, and it
was by no means the sunny, happy marriage that Republican
publicists presented to the public when Ike made his first
moves towards the presidency. Indeed, behind Ike's
big grin and the easy–going, affable personality he
liked to project was a very different man, fiercely
ambitious, hot–tempered, shrewd, and tightly wound.
He was a perfectionist for whom duty always came first,
and a man of immense ability. In 1941 he was a soldier who
was still an unknown and recently promoted colonel, and
just two years later he was a four–star general who
had commanded the biggest and most successful amphibious
operation in history –– TORCH, the
Anglo–American invasion of North Africa. He
commanded respect and was dealt as an equal with such
world figures as President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill,
and Charles De Gaulle.
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