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Dwight Eisenhower: World War Ii
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During World War II, Eisenhower was named chief of operations of the army in 1942 with the rank of major general. He was then named commanding general of the European theater of operations, a promotion that jumped him over 350 more senior officers. He commanded the forces that invaded North Africa in November 1942 and defeated the Axis powers by May 1943; he commanded the Italian campaign in 1943 that led to an armistice with the Italians; and he was named Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe on January 17, 1944. He made the decision to go ahead with the invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944 (D Day), in spite of bad weather that might have imperiled the operation. He later called it the most difficult decision he ever made. He achieved the highest rank in the American military, five-star general of the army, in December 1944.
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Eisenhower spent his first 50 years in almost total obscurity. A professional soldier, he was not even particularly well known within the U.S. Army. His rise to fame during World War II was meteoric: a lieutenant colonel in 1941, he was a five-star general in 1945. As supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, he commanded the most powerful force ever assembled under one man. He is one of the few generals ever to command major naval forces; he directed the world's greatest air force; he is the only man ever to command successfully an integrated, multinational alliance of ground, sea, and air forces. He led the assault on the French coast at Normandy, on June 6, 1944, and held together the Allied units through the European campaign that followed, concentrating everyone's attention on a single objective: the defeat of Nazi Germany, completed on May 8, 1945.
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Eisenhower is transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, as Chief of Staff, Third Army. He participates in the Louisiana Maneuvers in August and receives a temporary promotion to brigadier general. The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7 and the United States enters World War II. General Marshall calls Eisenhower to Washington, D.C. to review the Philippines situation and work in the War Department.
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Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in 1939 and held a series of staff positions in Washington, D.C., California and Texas. In June 1941, he was appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter Krueger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He was promoted to brigadier general in September 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had never held an active command and was far from being considered as a potential commander of major operations.
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Eisenhower remained in the Philippines for four years. When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, he was anxious to get home, for he foresaw that the United States must eventually become involved. He returned to the United States in December, 1939, and was assigned to the 15th Infantry as regimental executive officer. In 1941 he was promoted to colonel and made chief of staff of the U.S. Third Army. Later that year he was promoted to brigadier general.
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Jeff Broadwater provides a comprehensive survey of the Eisenhower administration's response to America's postwar Red Scare. He looks beyond Senator Joseph McCarthy's confrontations with Eisenhower to examine the administration's own anti-Communist crusade. Exploring the complex relationship between partisan politics and cold war tensions, Broadwater demonstrates that virulent anticommunism, as well as opposition to it, often cut across party and ideological lines. He shows... that although McCarthy and his allies captured the headlines, ultimately it was the Eisenhower administration that bore responsibility for implementing most of the nation's anti-Communist policies. The book begins with an overview of the debate over internal security following World War II and then examines Eisenhower's record on the issue. Broadwater asserts that at the outset of the cold war, Eisenhower assumed a moderate stance, defending some of McCarthy's targets and cooperating as NATO commander with European Socialist leaders.
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World War Ii