IKE AND WINSTON

The story of an “extraordinary personal rapport.”

Historian Jordan, author of American Warlords: How Roosevelt’s High Command Led America to Victory in World War II (2015), opens in the days after Pearl Harbor, when Prime Minister Winston Churchill, having rushed to Washington, D.C., to confer with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, meets but barely notices “a brigadier with no brigade” who, at age 51, had spent a career assisting other generals and was little valued, except by the general that mattered: Army Chief of Staff George Marshall. The formal “friendship” began six months later, in June 1942, when Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London to command the American European Theater of Operations and prepare the U.S. invasion of North Africa the following November. With FDR in distant Washington, it was inevitable that Churchill dealt almost daily with the U.S. commander on the spot, and an intimacy developed that lasted throughout long careers and lives (ending in 1965 for Churchill, 1969 for Eisenhower). Jordan pays modest attention to their private lives; this is mostly a history of the war, Eisenhower’s presidency (1953-1961) and Churchill’s second term as prime minister (1951-1955), with a heavy emphasis on international affairs and the two men’s relationship. There are few surprises for the history buff, and the author tends to pass over less admirable aspects of his subjects, including Churchill’s racism and Ike’s acceptance of the atomic bomb as a legitimate weapon. Churchill achieved immortality early in the war, when Britain fought alone. His influence dominated the first years of America’s involvement, but by 1944, Britain was playing second fiddle. Historians, if not Jordan, consider Churchill’s second term in office a disappointment. Eisenhower’s career followed the opposite course. A national hero, he remained popular as well as influential until the end of his life.

A solid history of a familiar era and two eminent leaders.