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My Three Years with Eisenhower: The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR
My Three Years with Eisenhower could have been written only by the man who lived with Dwight D. Eisenhower day and night; who acted as his friend and confidant; whose duties ranged from opening the General's car door to handling such ticklish jobs as the battle between General Patton and Sergeant Bill Mauldin; who saw Dwight Eisenhower, in his intimate day by day life, develop from a relatively unknown staff officer to the Commander of the greatest military operation in all history.
Captain Harry Butcher served for three years as naval aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II. As he wrote in his introduction, “I want to make it clear to the reader that this effort is my responsibility and not General Eisenhower's. Yet I like to think that, although I wrote the book, General Eisenhower lived it.”
General Eisenhower did indeed live it. So did Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Harry Hopkins, Bernard Montgomery, and General George Marshall and dozens of others of the English and American leaders who bore in their minds and in their hearts the terrible responsibility of planning and executing the war against Axis Europe.
For this book is a new kind of history, a backstage account of the movements of the most important actors in the greatest drama ever played. It is a unique combination of intense human interest and grand strategy, providing countless intimate glimpses of the key members of the Allied family, their relations with each other, their private and hitherto unpublished views on the greatest questions of the era, their human failings and their essential greatness.
Captain Harry Butcher served for three years as naval aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II. As he wrote in his introduction, “I want to make it clear to the reader that this effort is my responsibility and not General Eisenhower's. Yet I like to think that, although I wrote the book, General Eisenhower lived it.”
General Eisenhower did indeed live it. So did Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Harry Hopkins, Bernard Montgomery, and General George Marshall and dozens of others of the English and American leaders who bore in their minds and in their hearts the terrible responsibility of planning and executing the war against Axis Europe.
For this book is a new kind of history, a backstage account of the movements of the most important actors in the greatest drama ever played. It is a unique combination of intense human interest and grand strategy, providing countless intimate glimpses of the key members of the Allied family, their relations with each other, their private and hitherto unpublished views on the greatest questions of the era, their human failings and their essential greatness.
911 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
4 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Harry C. Butcher
4 booksHarry Cecil Butcher was an American radio broadcaster who served during World War II as the Naval Aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1942 to 1945.
During his tenure at WJSV, Butcher was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve (U.S.N.R.) on September 16, 1939. From 1942 to 1945, Butcher served as the Naval Aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. On May 1, 1943, Butcher was promoted to the rank of Commander in the U.S.N.R. On November 1, 1944 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Captain. Following an order given to him by Eisenhower, Butcher kept a diary of his and Eisenhower's wartime activities. The diary would come to be published in 1946 under the title "My Three Years with Eisenhower." It also led to historian Max Hastings referring to him as "the embodiment of all gossip-ridden staff officers".
It was Butcher who preserved the written statement that Eisenhower had prepared in the event that the D-Day invasions failed.
Butcher returned to the broadcasting world following the end of WWII. From 1946 to the 1970s, Butcher owned a radio station in Santa Barbara, California.He also served as president of Santa Barbara's cable TV corporation and as a radio/television consultant.
On April 20, 1985, Butcher died in Santa Barbara, California, United States.
During his tenure at WJSV, Butcher was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve (U.S.N.R.) on September 16, 1939. From 1942 to 1945, Butcher served as the Naval Aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. On May 1, 1943, Butcher was promoted to the rank of Commander in the U.S.N.R. On November 1, 1944 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Captain. Following an order given to him by Eisenhower, Butcher kept a diary of his and Eisenhower's wartime activities. The diary would come to be published in 1946 under the title "My Three Years with Eisenhower." It also led to historian Max Hastings referring to him as "the embodiment of all gossip-ridden staff officers".
It was Butcher who preserved the written statement that Eisenhower had prepared in the event that the D-Day invasions failed.
Butcher returned to the broadcasting world following the end of WWII. From 1946 to the 1970s, Butcher owned a radio station in Santa Barbara, California.He also served as president of Santa Barbara's cable TV corporation and as a radio/television consultant.
On April 20, 1985, Butcher died in Santa Barbara, California, United States.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 14, 2013
Ike had Butcher, (wife was friend of Mamie) stay by his side, writing s diary of all the planning & execution of the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. Butcher, a Navy Reservist, no sea going experience but a detailed writer. Didn't have a clue as to proper military etiquette about boarding a battleship. Funny, wordy, even recording Ike cooking pasta in his room. And when Ike went to the bathroom where he was billeted and a rat was on the toilet seat. Ike shot at it and split the seat, took 3 shots from his .45, but he got it. As all generals, as Ike gained a star, aide gained a stripe, Harry ending as a 4 stripe Capt.
May 20, 2022
An accidental diarist
‘Ike says I’m to keep a diary.’
With these words Captain Harry C Butcher, USNR, begins a diary like no other. He had just been appointed as Naval Aide to General Eisenhower (‘Ike’) who is to command the Allied invasion of North Africa. Butcher’s diary begins on 8 July 1942 and continues until 12 July 1945.
Butcher, though, was no ordinary aide. Ike chose him because ‘he wanted an old friend around to whom he could talk eye to eye, without having to worry about subservience’. While the diary was not official – Butcher was to record whatever he thought fit and in whatever way he chose –it has inevitably become a key record of the planning and implementation of Torch (the invasion of North Africa), the Sicily landings (Husky) and the return to Europe (Overlord). Most of this time Ike and Butcher lived together, sharing every meal and sleeping in adjacent bedrooms. This proximity meant that the diary shows Ike the general and Ike the man without any distinction.
Butcher’s story begins with Ike billeted in a flat in Grosvenor Square. (He and Butcher later moved out of London to escape the round of social events to which Ike was invited.) A campaign headquarters had already been set up in a house in St James Square in London. In four months to the day that Butcher began his diary, Eisenhower, with Butcher at his side, had to plan and organise landings involving around 125,000 men, 500 aircraft and 850 ships. Butcher faithfully records the dramas and the problems of putting such a force together in such a short time.
The birth of the plans
The immediacy of Butcher’s diary is there from the start. On Sunday 19 July 1942 he records ‘Ike worked hard today. Kept two stenographers busy.’ They were typing his first proposals for the Allied invasion of North Africa. Later that day, after General Marshall and Admiral King suggested a few changes, the broad plan was done. ‘These are momentous days,’ wrote Butcher. By the end of the month, planning officers were hurrying from America to begin translating the broad plan into operational details. In turn, the diary goes on to cover the planning and implementing of Husky and then of Overlord, which saw thousands of men pour onto the Normandy beaches.
Daily life
Butcher’s record of, at times, the hour by hour planning and implementing of these vast operations is probably unique. He mixes the mundane with high strategy as he and Ike live side by side in a house outside London and, later, various houses in North Africa. There is no great entourage. Messengers and visitors come and go. Occasionally life is interrupted by security alerts.
Butcher does an excellent job in conveying the nervous excitement at the launch of a big attack. He and Ike are on edge as the first bits of news comes in. Their most anxious moments are when no news comes in. Has the attack been a mighty disaster? Is the news too bad to be conveyed in a short message?
Often Ike and Butcher are alone when the day’s work is done. For Ike, Butcher was an aide and a companion rather than a subordinate office to be ordered around. They shared the same bathroom and every meal. They each saw the other’s strains, disappointments and illnesses. You sense you are there as Butcher places his record of high strategic command within the context of the spartan daily life of armies on the move.
Wartime London
Butcher still finds time to record the minutiae of daily life. When he is first in London he notes the woman street cleaners (previously a man’s job): ‘Walking back from lunch on Audley Street this afternoon, for the first time I noticed a woman street sweeper. Uniformed, plump, and cheerful, she was gingerly brushing accumulated horse manure into her dustpan on wheels, and humming a tune.’
Skulking in Gibraltar
There are some marvellous passages dealing with the complexities of coordinating the plans of the various powers. At one stage – when Ike is in Algeria – it is imperative for him to coordinate with the Free French. The only feasible meeting place was Gibraltar. Spain, though, was determined to do nothing that could be seen as supporting one or other side in the war. This meant that the participants had to be smuggled in and out of Gibraltar in the depths of the night. (The British contingent had to be landed secretly from a submarine in the pitch black using collapsible boats.) The two groups met at midnight in a cellar and the negotiations were successfully concluded. The travel arrangements, though, were a disaster, resulting in General Clark’s clothes ending up at the bottom of the Mediterranean. This is the reality of war that we rarely see recorded.
Surrender
Another remarkable passage records how difficult it was for Germany to surrender. The Russians were in one place; the allies were in another; and the few remaining senior German officers were scattered to remote corners. Getting the parties to comment on draft documents and to agree on a final wording was a logistical nightmare, worsened by the various parties working under different time zones. Once again, Butcher provides us with an intimate close up view of the complexities of an apparently simple task once the ravages of war have destroyed telephone systems, roads, railways and airports.
An accidental diarist
Butcher’s diary was packed with information of value to the enemy. At times (particularly in North Africa) its pages might have been seized by a local spy. To minimise this risk, his handwritten diary was typed by a trusted secretary and the pages were then regularly shipped back to America where they were safely locked away until the war’s end.
Butcher was an accidental diarist, having been asked to write as part of his duties. Hence he had no personal motive. He was not telling his story but was recording the work of a great general and the ambiance in which Ike worked. Butcher proved to be a natural diarist. He records what happens without fear or favour and has an eye for telling detail. He is not judgemental and reveals next to nothing of his own personality.
Butcher’s diary is as fresh as the day he wrote it – it was never revised or edited. In summary, Three Years With Eisenhower is an outstanding diary.
Richard Freeman
25 May 2022
‘Ike says I’m to keep a diary.’
With these words Captain Harry C Butcher, USNR, begins a diary like no other. He had just been appointed as Naval Aide to General Eisenhower (‘Ike’) who is to command the Allied invasion of North Africa. Butcher’s diary begins on 8 July 1942 and continues until 12 July 1945.
Butcher, though, was no ordinary aide. Ike chose him because ‘he wanted an old friend around to whom he could talk eye to eye, without having to worry about subservience’. While the diary was not official – Butcher was to record whatever he thought fit and in whatever way he chose –it has inevitably become a key record of the planning and implementation of Torch (the invasion of North Africa), the Sicily landings (Husky) and the return to Europe (Overlord). Most of this time Ike and Butcher lived together, sharing every meal and sleeping in adjacent bedrooms. This proximity meant that the diary shows Ike the general and Ike the man without any distinction.
Butcher’s story begins with Ike billeted in a flat in Grosvenor Square. (He and Butcher later moved out of London to escape the round of social events to which Ike was invited.) A campaign headquarters had already been set up in a house in St James Square in London. In four months to the day that Butcher began his diary, Eisenhower, with Butcher at his side, had to plan and organise landings involving around 125,000 men, 500 aircraft and 850 ships. Butcher faithfully records the dramas and the problems of putting such a force together in such a short time.
The birth of the plans
The immediacy of Butcher’s diary is there from the start. On Sunday 19 July 1942 he records ‘Ike worked hard today. Kept two stenographers busy.’ They were typing his first proposals for the Allied invasion of North Africa. Later that day, after General Marshall and Admiral King suggested a few changes, the broad plan was done. ‘These are momentous days,’ wrote Butcher. By the end of the month, planning officers were hurrying from America to begin translating the broad plan into operational details. In turn, the diary goes on to cover the planning and implementing of Husky and then of Overlord, which saw thousands of men pour onto the Normandy beaches.
Daily life
Butcher’s record of, at times, the hour by hour planning and implementing of these vast operations is probably unique. He mixes the mundane with high strategy as he and Ike live side by side in a house outside London and, later, various houses in North Africa. There is no great entourage. Messengers and visitors come and go. Occasionally life is interrupted by security alerts.
Butcher does an excellent job in conveying the nervous excitement at the launch of a big attack. He and Ike are on edge as the first bits of news comes in. Their most anxious moments are when no news comes in. Has the attack been a mighty disaster? Is the news too bad to be conveyed in a short message?
Often Ike and Butcher are alone when the day’s work is done. For Ike, Butcher was an aide and a companion rather than a subordinate office to be ordered around. They shared the same bathroom and every meal. They each saw the other’s strains, disappointments and illnesses. You sense you are there as Butcher places his record of high strategic command within the context of the spartan daily life of armies on the move.
Wartime London
Butcher still finds time to record the minutiae of daily life. When he is first in London he notes the woman street cleaners (previously a man’s job): ‘Walking back from lunch on Audley Street this afternoon, for the first time I noticed a woman street sweeper. Uniformed, plump, and cheerful, she was gingerly brushing accumulated horse manure into her dustpan on wheels, and humming a tune.’
Skulking in Gibraltar
There are some marvellous passages dealing with the complexities of coordinating the plans of the various powers. At one stage – when Ike is in Algeria – it is imperative for him to coordinate with the Free French. The only feasible meeting place was Gibraltar. Spain, though, was determined to do nothing that could be seen as supporting one or other side in the war. This meant that the participants had to be smuggled in and out of Gibraltar in the depths of the night. (The British contingent had to be landed secretly from a submarine in the pitch black using collapsible boats.) The two groups met at midnight in a cellar and the negotiations were successfully concluded. The travel arrangements, though, were a disaster, resulting in General Clark’s clothes ending up at the bottom of the Mediterranean. This is the reality of war that we rarely see recorded.
Surrender
Another remarkable passage records how difficult it was for Germany to surrender. The Russians were in one place; the allies were in another; and the few remaining senior German officers were scattered to remote corners. Getting the parties to comment on draft documents and to agree on a final wording was a logistical nightmare, worsened by the various parties working under different time zones. Once again, Butcher provides us with an intimate close up view of the complexities of an apparently simple task once the ravages of war have destroyed telephone systems, roads, railways and airports.
An accidental diarist
Butcher’s diary was packed with information of value to the enemy. At times (particularly in North Africa) its pages might have been seized by a local spy. To minimise this risk, his handwritten diary was typed by a trusted secretary and the pages were then regularly shipped back to America where they were safely locked away until the war’s end.
Butcher was an accidental diarist, having been asked to write as part of his duties. Hence he had no personal motive. He was not telling his story but was recording the work of a great general and the ambiance in which Ike worked. Butcher proved to be a natural diarist. He records what happens without fear or favour and has an eye for telling detail. He is not judgemental and reveals next to nothing of his own personality.
Butcher’s diary is as fresh as the day he wrote it – it was never revised or edited. In summary, Three Years With Eisenhower is an outstanding diary.
Richard Freeman
25 May 2022
February 20, 2017
Feb 5: Not finished yet. I got to page 672 and discovered that 673 to 705 are missing replaced by 737 to 768 upside down and backwards and then the text continues beginning on page 705. So 672-704 are completely missing. I ordered another copy, also old, and hope its complete.
I ordered another used copy and then finished it. I loved this book. Having just read Rick Atkinson's trilogy of WWII, I have the outline of the war's events and a lot of details already in my head so it was really a treat to read this diary which gives details of how it unfolded day by day. Butcher did edit his diaries and often adds footnotes, but really you know what he knows on any given day of the war. Butcher, a Naval officer and experienced PR person (he worked for CBS before the war) starts working as an aide to Eisenhower who'd began planning for the invasion of North Africa.
I ordered another used copy and then finished it. I loved this book. Having just read Rick Atkinson's trilogy of WWII, I have the outline of the war's events and a lot of details already in my head so it was really a treat to read this diary which gives details of how it unfolded day by day. Butcher did edit his diaries and often adds footnotes, but really you know what he knows on any given day of the war. Butcher, a Naval officer and experienced PR person (he worked for CBS before the war) starts working as an aide to Eisenhower who'd began planning for the invasion of North Africa.
February 2, 2014
Diaries intended for publication risk self-consciousness and spin, but Butcher's superb blow-by-blow of his three years as Eisenhower's Naval Aide during World War II has offsetting virtues. It takes the reader inside the laborious planning phase for the invasion of Normandy and the nearly yearlong endgame of the war in Europe, reminding us how many uncertainties surrounded the effort. It details the need to account not only for military necessities but national and personal rivalries. There is tension with the news media but nothing like what would follow in Vietnam. All this is told in Butcher's magnificent writing voice: he comes across as good-humored, friendly, modest and imperturbable. He must have been a valuable guy to have around.
April 5, 2023
Let me put it this way: I’ve been reading Second World War history for forty year or so and I’m kicking myself for just now reading this wonderful volume. That said, you do need a good understanding of the battles and events, but perhaps not forty years’ worth. My Three Years with Eisenhower: The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR is a gem. It is largely a primary source with the caveat that the original diary has been condensed and it does include a very few explanatory notes. The diary is the story of modern industrialized warfare. It really drives home the realization that global war is a contest of industrial sectors where ships, aircraft, weapons, and soldiers are simply currency to exchange for territorial goals.
One challenge in writing history is preserving immediacy of perspective – telling a tale without allowing our knowing ‘how it turned out’ to color the story. And that’s the charm (if I may use that word for a war memoir) of this diary. Butcher doesn’t know how it’s going to turn out. The reader, however, does and it is poignant in places to read about, for instance, Darlan, knowing that he will be assassinated; or McNair, knowing he will be killed by Army Air Corp bombs that fell a bit short; or, for that matter, that fact that Roosevelt is about to die when reading the entries of April 1945.
From a strictly historical perspective, I found the day-to-day accounts of TORCH and OPERATION HUSKY to be most interesting. These were the battles, supply situations, and politics where the Allied command matured, and which made possible the success of OVERLORD and subsequent efforts. The lessons on combined operations described in this book are not dated. They are perhaps even more relevant today. I sincerely hope Butcher’s volume is required reading at the United States Military Academy.
Finally, Butcher is a fine writer, as might be expected from one who spent his career in broadcasting. The diary is a joy to read, and Butcher’s self-depreciating humor shines through without becoming a distraction. My Three Years with Eisenhower humanizes the Supreme Commander and, oh yes, it contains plenty of gossip.
One challenge in writing history is preserving immediacy of perspective – telling a tale without allowing our knowing ‘how it turned out’ to color the story. And that’s the charm (if I may use that word for a war memoir) of this diary. Butcher doesn’t know how it’s going to turn out. The reader, however, does and it is poignant in places to read about, for instance, Darlan, knowing that he will be assassinated; or McNair, knowing he will be killed by Army Air Corp bombs that fell a bit short; or, for that matter, that fact that Roosevelt is about to die when reading the entries of April 1945.
From a strictly historical perspective, I found the day-to-day accounts of TORCH and OPERATION HUSKY to be most interesting. These were the battles, supply situations, and politics where the Allied command matured, and which made possible the success of OVERLORD and subsequent efforts. The lessons on combined operations described in this book are not dated. They are perhaps even more relevant today. I sincerely hope Butcher’s volume is required reading at the United States Military Academy.
Finally, Butcher is a fine writer, as might be expected from one who spent his career in broadcasting. The diary is a joy to read, and Butcher’s self-depreciating humor shines through without becoming a distraction. My Three Years with Eisenhower humanizes the Supreme Commander and, oh yes, it contains plenty of gossip.
August 27, 2017
This was a long read due to the level of detail and my frequent need to consult maps, research related historic perspective, and expand my knowledge of the complexity of the North African and European war efforts. The level of political "intrigue/interference" endured by the highest of military commands is also quite amazing.
As a former company grade army officer, seeing what went on in the highest of commands is quite fascinating and something every young officer should have the opportunity to observe, if only briefly, before or soon after beginning work at the bottom. At one point in the book, Ike says the same thing when his second lieutenant son visits before assuming his platoon leader position in a company.
Those interested in military history will love this book.
As a former company grade army officer, seeing what went on in the highest of commands is quite fascinating and something every young officer should have the opportunity to observe, if only briefly, before or soon after beginning work at the bottom. At one point in the book, Ike says the same thing when his second lieutenant son visits before assuming his platoon leader position in a company.
Those interested in military history will love this book.
June 12, 2020
I enjoyed the book. I believe he glosses over Eisenhower's short comings and faults.
April 15, 2017
Butcher was Ike's friend (dating back to before their service together) and his constant companion for most of the period 1942-45, although there were some months later in the period when Ike wasn't happy with Butcher and they weren't as tight as before.
Very, very insightful and interesting. This is one of those "key" books that is used as a primary source by many World War II histories.
Read concurrently with Ike's memoirs and David Eisenhower's history of Ike in 1943-45.
Very, very insightful and interesting. This is one of those "key" books that is used as a primary source by many World War II histories.
Read concurrently with Ike's memoirs and David Eisenhower's history of Ike in 1943-45.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews