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EISENHOWER: At War 1943-1945 by David Eisenhower

EISENHOWER: At War 1943-1945

By

Pub Date: Sept. 23rd, 1986
Publisher: Random House

The first of a three-volume biography of Eisenhower's public years by his grandson, David. The younger Eisenhower has spent some six years on this project, covering only a three-year period in Ike's career, which gives some idea of the grandiosity of his intention. At this rate, he should get through his grandfather's presidency by early next century. This is not to make light of his achievement. Eisenhower: At War is a work of dignified, completely researched history. Three decades after Eisenhower's presidency, a spate of books is being published on issues of his era or about the man. David's is different in the unified view he intends to bind his trilogy-to-be. That view is that Eisenhower's experiences in WW II were the clay he molded into his overall world view, which is ultimately crucial to the understanding of his presidency. Eisenhower saw Russia's isolation as a danger to the postwar world, and spent the next 15 years of his public life attempting to defuse the Cold War. When his attempts failed, he warned his citizens of the consequences, especially as they related to the ""military-industrial complex. ""David Eisenhower's special status, in being able to call upon his own father for firsthand information and on his father-in-law Richard Nixon's expertise in foreign matters, has helped him to produce a very solid work. It is a secondary source, to be sure, but his interpretations are full of acumen, and he doesn't shrink from uncomfortable topics, such as Eisenhower's decision to allow Montgomery to go ahead with his Market Garden attack, even when Ike knew that it was doomed, in order to finally dispose of Monty's challenges to his authority. Nepotism in the pursuit of biography is no vice.