Eisenhower in War and Peace Quotes

“Jealousy knows no logic, nor does it respect reciprocity.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“The Italian government, a free French newspaper tartly observed, never finished a war on the same side it started on – unless the war lasted long enough to change sides twice.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Eisenhower on Patton: "Fundamentally, he is so avid for recognition as a great commander that he won't with ruthlessly suppress any habit that will jeopardize it.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“The loneliness of command had made Eisenhower emotionally self-sufficient.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“The Army of Eisenhower’s day valued understatement. With rare exceptions generals did not decorate themselves like Christmas trees. Action spoke for itself. Nothing did that more eloquently than the simple soldier’s funeral of the nation’s thirty-fourth president. On April 2, 1969, in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was laid to rest in the presence of his family. He was buried in a government-issue, eighty-dollar pine coffin, wearing his famous Ike jacket with no medals or decorations other than his insignia of rank.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Among all the powerful nations of the world the United States is the only one with a tradition of anti-colonialism.” That was an asset of incalculable value. “It means our counsel is trusted where that of others may not be. It is essential to our position of leadership in a world wherein the majority of the nations have at some time or another felt the yoke of colonialism.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“The hard decisions,” Ridgway added, “are not the ones you make in the heat of battle. Far harder to make are those involved in speaking your mind about some hare-brained scheme, which proposes to commit troops to action under conditions where failure is almost certain, and the only results will be the needless sacrifice of priceless lives.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“From what I hear of what has been appearing in the newspapers,” Ike wrote his son John, “you are learning that it is easy enough for a man to be a newspaper hero one day and a bum the next.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Patton would have said a warmer goodbye to his horse, The author writes on Eisenhower's cold dismissal of his wartime lover.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“As proof that HOW we see things matters, Gen. Montgomery took a preprepared text that had been deemed an innocuous complement to his American troops and delivered it in such a way that his condescension prompted more division than unity.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Ike was like a giant umbrella. He absorbed what was coming down from above, shielded his commanders from higher authority, and about them to fight the war without excessive second-guessing.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Author says that, while Eisenhower had other intellectual mentors, he learned how to lead men from Gen. Walter Krueger. Krueger was the first American enlisted man to rise to four-star general, and he so identified with those he led that he once invited a sentry out of the rain and gave him his own dry uniform.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Use common sense; don’t magnify the importance of insignificant details; don’t worry about bygones; and keep it simple. Focus, common sense, simplicity, and attitude”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“The Eisenhower administration, and Ike himself, bear heavy responsibility for snuffing out responsible government in Iran.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Eisenhower and Patton, old friends and figures crucial to the Allies' upcoming success, conferred over yet another gaffe on Patton's part that could have cost him his command. Patton's head is on Ike's shoulder in gratitude, but the scene is rescued from being completely maudlin by Eisenhower's internal question as to whether Patton wears his ever-present helmet to bed.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“white southern society that, like the Bourbons of France after the revolution, had “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“Eisenhower studied his mistakes. “We are learning something every day, and in general do not make the same mistake twice.”9 Ike learned to be tougher with subordinates such as Fredendall. “Officers that fail must be ruthlessly weeded out,” Eisenhower wrote his old friend Leonard Gerow. “Considerations of friendship, family, kindness, and nice personality have nothing to do with the problem.… You must be tough.”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“counted themselves among California’s established”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace

“cantonment in the United States, and was considered”
― Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower in War and Peace