A big ambitious and enthralling new biography of Dwight D Eisenhower full of fascinating details and anecdotes which places particular emphasis on his brilliant generalship and leadership in World War Two and provides with the advantage of hindsight a far more acute analysis of his character and personality than any that has previously been available reaching the conclusion that he was perhaps Americas greatest general and one of Americas best presidents a man who won the war and thereafter kept the peace IKE starts with the story of DndashDay the most critical moment in Americas history It was Hitlers last chance to win the war ndashndash he had the means to destroy the troops on the beaches but he failed to react quickly enough The one man who would have reacted quickly and decisively had he been on the spot Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was home on leave and didnt arrive back at his headquarters until it was too late It was Ikes plan Ikes decision Ikes responsibility He alone among all the Allied generals could win or lose the war in one day and knew it But of course there is more to this book than military history It is a full biography of a remarkable man ambitious a late starter a brilliant leader of men and perhaps the only American general who could command such a difficult coalition and win the respect of not only his own soldiers but also those of Great Britain and France and lead them to a triumphant victory It is also the story of a remarkable family Ike grew up in Abilene Kansas and the Eisenhowers were Mennonites who like the Amish were deeply committed pacifists so it is ironic that he went to West Point and became a general to his mothers horror It is as well the portrait of a tumultuous and often difficult marriage for Mamie was every bit as stubborn and forceful as her husband and it was by no means the sunny happy marriage that Republican publicists presented to the public when Ike made his first moves towards the presidency Indeed behind Ikes big grin and the easyndashgoing affable personality he liked to project was a very different man fiercely ambitious hotndashtempered shrewd and tightly wound He was a perfectionist for whom duty always came first and a man of immense ability In he was a soldier who was still an unknown and recently promoted colonel and just two years later he was a fourndashstar general who had commanded the biggest and most successful amphibious operation in history ndashndash TORCH the AnglondashAmerican invasion of North Africa He commanded respect and was dealt as an equal with such world figures as President Roosevelt Winston Churchill and Charles De Gaulle.
