Eisenhower

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Recent studies of Dwight D. Eisenhower have tended to focus on particular aspects of his life, his military career in particular. Now, for the first time in two decades, we have an unblinking, comprehensive look at Eisenhower the man, the general, and the president in Geoffrey Perret's Eisenhower.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Breaking no new ground in the way of facts or interpretation, Perret Old Soldiers Never Die; Ulysses S. Grant nevertheless provides a useful, generally efficient summary of Ike's long and multifaceted life--albeit one devoid of critical judgments and one that is stronger on Ike's military career than on his political career. Evidently an ardent fan of the warrior-president, Perret fails to give adequate scrutiny to such troubling events as Eisenhower's well-known abandonment of his old friend George Marshall during the McCarthy era, or his key role in fostering the plan for the ill-starred Bay of Pigs invasion, put into effect so disastrously by Kennedy--whom he despised--once Ike had left office. Perret is strong in portraying all aspects of Eisenhower in his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII. The author is particularly good at depicting Ike's intense, sometimes tense relationships with British Field Marshall Montgomery and President Roosevelt, as well as with his own wife, Mamie, who tried but failed to get the general to assure their son John safe duty away from combat--something neither father nor son thought proper. What the book lacks as a presidential biography, it makes up for as the biography of a great military leader. Oct. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Stephen Ambrose's landmark biography Eisenhower (1983) inspired this work, an effort justified by the availability of new primary-source materials on various aspects of Ike's life and career. Perret (Ulysses S. Grant, LJ 7/97) traces Eisenhower's meteoric rise in the army, his early promotions owing not to his experience but to his organizational genius, gift for writing, and ability to "go along" with unpalatable assignments. Following Pearl Harbor, he oversaw the campaigns in North Africa and Sicily as theater commander, preparatory to the Normandy invasion (Overlord). Perret salutes his subject as the architect of Operation Overlord, and his fluid prose keeps pace with Ike's race for the Rhine. At war's end, Eisenhower appears as a Cold War realist but with a dangerous overreliance on nuclear weapons as instruments of military and political containment. Perret praises Ike's domestic reforms and budget surpluses but shows Eisenhower to be a "go-slow" civil rights reformer and not entirely courageous in opposing McCarthyism. An impressive biography; recommended for public and academic libraries.--John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Drawing on newly available material, including Eisenhower's papers and diaries, author and military historian Geoffrey Perret offers a comprehensive portrait of the life, military exploits, political life, and presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969). He covers several controversies including an alleged dalliance, Eisenhower's break with MacArthur in 1939, his opinion of Nixon, and his role in McCarthy's activities. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A straightforward narration of the life of one of the century's most remarkable and indispensable leaders. Biography is among the most difficult forms of history, for a biographer often thinks a choice must be made between describing and interpreting a life, when both may be undertaken at once. Unfortunately, Perret, a military historian (Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II, 1993), and biographer of Ulysses S. Grant, has taken the easiest approach and limited himself largely to a narration of the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower—great military leader, mediocre president, and universally beloved American—more or less letting the facts speak for themselves. In this first full-length biography of Ike in two decades, Perret makes use of the pertinent scholarship produced in the interim, as well as documents, such as Ike's diaries, unavailable to his predecessors. Yet while Perret portrays his foot soldiers' general in admiring terms, his portrayal yields little that is significantly new about Ike's generalship, his presidency, or the great events in which he was involved. Eisenhower does come off as a better thinker and writer than we normally view him. He appears sharper-tongued and more acerbic than we recall him and is scornful of many others, such as Douglas MacArthur. And in Perret's hands, we come to appreciate better his qualities of leadership, which he understood to spring, not from command, but from human relationships, at which he was superb. But still the man eludes us, as in the end he eludes Perret, too. In a generally solid treatment, one looks in vain for interpretation and evaluation as well as narration. A biography that effectively recallsIke's life while not adding significantly to knowledge of it—or of the events Ike's life affected. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)