Eisenhower (62 page)

Finally, as always, there are two people whose love overarches all these pages and transcends the normal expressions of gratitude: my wife, Karlene Goller, and my son, Jack Newton.

Karlene’s gifts to me are innumerable. They start with wisdom and counsel and thankfully include much patience. Karlene read and reread these pages as they piled up, formed and re-formed. She prodded me toward a fuller, more human rendering of Ike: when my impulses tugged me toward the
Congressional Record
, she gently countered by wondering about Mamie. When we traveled together, I angled for the files at the Library of Congress; she took me to West Point and Gettysburg. The result: every draft improved with her suggestions, and the book became, I hope, one centered not on the presidency so much as on the president. For Karlene, that was no small sacrifice. She invested time and patience despite her crucial duties as the
Los Angeles Times
’s newsroom counsel, and to the exclusion of reading for fun for years on end. As a journalist, I am awestruck by her commitment to excellence; as her husband, I am ecstatically grateful for her goodness. Our marriage is the sustaining force of my life. I wake to it in wonder every morning.

When I began the business of writing books, Jack Newton was four years old. As this book goes to press, he is fourteen. Once a spirited little boy, he is now a captivating young man, complete with his own style, music, culture, and intelligence. He is, to my astonishment and thrill, a study in independence. And yet he has happily grown up with Earl Warren and Dwight D. Eisenhower. That has given me much pleasure and many opportunities to celebrate. To cite just one: when Jack was in eighth grade, as I was nearing the end of this book, he chose as a topic for a class project
Brown v. Board of Education
, which he dissected with aplomb, fresh insight, and arresting imagery. Such are the epiphanies of our overlapping lives. Having always loved my son, I now have the great joy of admiring him as well.

My life is dedicated to Karlene and Jack. So is this book.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

  
1
in twelve years: New York Times
, May 2, 1958.

  
2
one meeting of consequence:
May 1, 1960, Presidential Appointment Books, DDEPL.

  
3
through a mild recession:
Polling data courtesy of the APP, at
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/popularity.php?pres=34&sort=time&direct=DESC&Submit=DISPLAY
.

  
4
“by the device of wishful thinking”:
Editorial,
New York Times
, May 2, 1958.

  
5
“He is moved by forces”:
Childs,
Captive Hero
, p. 47.

  
6
“as a weak president”:
Ibid., p. 292.

  
7
“to resist a Soviet attack”:
364th NSC Meeting, May 1, 1958, box 10, NSC Series, Whitman File.

  
8
“urgent for us to develop”:
Ibid.

  
9
“In short, the United States”:
Ibid.

10
he called it a day:
May 1, 1958, Presidential Appointment Books.

CHAPTER
1:
THE LESSONS OF FAMILY

  
1
decamped for Kansas and college:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 78.

  
2
a confrontation with the ex-partner:
Ibid., pp. 31–32. Edgar Eisenhower, who went on to become a lawyer, said his mother used to joke that he was drawn to the law because she had been reading so many law books while she was pregnant with him.

  
3
her third son:
DDE Personal folder, Name Series, Whitman File.

  
4
serious to the point of being glum:
John Eisenhower,
Strictly Personal
, p. 16.

  
5
“I have seldom seen”:
McCallum,
Six Roads from Abilene
, p. 42. Although McCallum is the author of
Six Roads
, it is, in effect, an extended and authorized interview with Ike’s brother Edgar and thus constitutes Edgar’s recollections of their childhood.

  
6
six hundred followers in the area:
For a brief history of the River Brethren, see
http://www.reformedreader.org/riverbrethren.htm
.

  
7
as the name suggests, to biblical study:
McCallum,
Six Roads from Abilene
, p. 86. Although the Bible Students would migrate into the Jehovah’s Witnesses and both David and Ida would become Witnesses, the Eisenhower brothers never joined and took pains to suppress their parents’ connection to the religion; David also eventually rejected the Witnesses. The Witnesses were intensely controversial in the early twentieth century, refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the American government and declining to salute the flag, as well as predicting the imminent end of days. None of that made it appealing for Ike to discuss his parents’ affiliation with the Witnesses as he assumed an ever more prominent place in American life.

  
8
to control a brooding temper:
Ibid., p. 30.

  
9
“He was not one to be trifled with”:
DDE to Edgar, June 30, 1953, Edgar Eisenhower 1953 (1) folder, Name Series, Whitman File.

10
“a very capable and interesting boy”:
Minnie Stewart to DDE, Feb. 10, 1946, I. Stewart–W. Stewart (Misc.) folder, box 105, Principal File, Pre-presidential Papers, DDEPL.

11
“Baseball, football, boxing”:
DDE, interview with Pat Morin, Aug. 5, 1965, AP-1 Pat Morin folder, box 2, 1965 Principal File, Post-presidential Papers, DDEPL.

12
trick-or-treat with his older brothers:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 51.

13
“Which son do you mean?”:
“The Eisenhowers of Kansas,” Reynolds–R. Reynolds folder, box 95, Principal File, Pre-presidential Papers.

14
“would philosophize”:
DDE, interview with Morin, Aug. 5, 1965, p. 3.

15
leg and the boy were saved:
Ibid., p. 5.

16
“martyr to duty”:
Gravestone in Abilene graveyard.

17
devotion to Westerns:
John Eisenhower, exchange with author, Sept. 27, 2010.

18
“Never … negotiate with an adversary”:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 30.

19
“quiet, orderly movement”:
Ibid., p. 82.

20
to work in a local doctor’s office:
Ibid., p. 36.

21
“hot-tempered and quarrelsome”:
Ibid., p. 34.

22
prospect of a free education:
DDE, interview with Morin, Aug. 5, 1965.

23
entrance examination for Annapolis:
Ibid.

24
too old to be admitted:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 105.

25
heard his mother cry:
Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, p. 30.

26
“clear blue eyes”:
Ibid., p. 34.

27
about ten days later:
Morin to Mamie, note, and her reply, Nov. 4, 1965, Memoranda (for the Record of Files) (1), box 2, 1965 Principal File, Post-presidential Papers.

28
a 1912 football game against Tufts:
Ann Whitman, April 5, 1960, entry, April 1960 (2) folder, box 11, ACW Diary Series, Whitman File; also DDE to C. B. Sawyer, July 23, 1953, 1-A 1952–53 (3) folder, box 2, Central Files, President’s Personal Files, DDEPL.

29
bored with his studies, lethargic:
John Eisenhower, exchange with author, Sept. 2010.

30
“The fellows that used to call me”:
DDE to Ruby Norman, Nov. 22, 1913, Correspondence from Dwight D. Eisenhower, box 1, Ruby Norman Lucier Papers, DDEPL.

31
friends convinced him to stay:
Slater,
The Ike I Knew
, p. 207.

32
importance of a tidy barracks:
DDE, interview with Morin, Aug. 5, 1965, p. 9.

33
unimpressive 125th in terms of conduct:
Transcripts courtesy of DDEPL.

34
treated to Ike’s gag:
Butcher,
Three Years with Eisenhower
, p. xiii.

35
“the handsomest man in the Corps”: Howitzer, Class of 1915
, West Point.

36
second lieutenant in the U.S. Army:
Copy of commission, U.S. Army Commissions, box 163, 1916–52 Principal File, Pre-presidential Papers.

37
“never gives me a thought”:
DDE to Harding, n.d., labeled “#2, Summer of 1915” in file, Early Letters from DDE (2), Brooks Papers.

38
she sighed to her diary:
Harding, June 15–Aug. 31, 1915, entries, 1915 Diary (folders 1 and 2), Brooks Papers.

39
to be able to afford one:
Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, p. 12.

40
for the warmer winter:
Ibid., pp. 10–12.

41
recall the price of a tamale:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 113.

42
to whom he was not yet engaged:
Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, p. 36. See also, Wickman/Burg oral history interview with Mamie Eisenhower, p. 5.

43
it melted:
Morin to Mamie, note, and her reply, Nov. 4, 1965.

44
met Ike’s family for the first time:
Ibid.

45
He was charmed:
Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, p. 42.

46
“Well, young lady”:
Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, p. 45.

47
with pride the rest of her life:
Ibid., p. 290.

48
“Ike never had the slightest notion”:
David Eisenhower,
Going Home
, p. 23.

49
“I was inclined to display”:
DDE,
At Ease
, p. 180. In
At Ease
, Eisenhower spelled his son’s nickname “Icky.” Others recall that it was rendered as “Ikky.” Since it was merely a nickname, there is no accepted spelling.

50
in his father’s embrace:
This account is drawn largely from Susan Eisenhower,
Mrs. Ike
, which in turn relies on the memory of Mamie.

51
Icky loved yellow:
Ibid., p. 73.

52
“the greatest disappointment and disaster”:
DDE,
At Ease
, pp. 181–82.

53
her husband and his driver:
Mamie’s letters from the period did not survive, but she saved Ike’s half of the correspondence, and those letters are preserved at DDEPL, as well as in a collection of the letters published by their son, John.

54
“There are also a couple of WAACS”:
DDE to Mamie, Feb. 3, 1943, in
Letters to Mamie
, p. 93.