“On December 12, 1941, five days after Pearl Harbor, newly promoted Brigadier General Dwight Eisenhower, chief of staff of the U. S. Third Army in San Antonio, Texas, received a telephone call from the War Department in Washington. Colonel Walter Bedell Smith, Secretary of the General Staff, asked, “Is that you, Ike?” “Yes,” Eisenhower replied. “The Chief says for you to hop a plane and get up here right away,” Smith ordered. “Tell your boss that formal orders will come through later.”— The Supreme Commander, The War Years of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Pg. 3
Our world, as we knew it then, had changed five days earlier. Japan pulled off the most dramatic feat no one ever expected, which shocked the United States and the world.
Eisenhower was planning to visit his son at West Point. All that changed when he received the call from the War Department. He got on the first plane available, and when it had mechanical problems, he took a train the rest of the way to Washington, D.C.
Eisenhower, Ike, had no idea why the ‘Chief’ of the War Department wanted him. The Chief was George C. Marshall, the individual President Roosevelt relied on heavily to develop the strategy that would stop the tyranny of Hitler, Mussolini, and now the Japanese.
Hitler and Mussolini were actively spreading their brand of authoritative governance, and both saw themselves as having the answers to the problems Europe was facing from the global depression their countries labored under. They believed the time was right for their brand of authoritative rule. Europe needed strong men such as themselves, and they were determined to provide their form of leadership at the point of a gun, and any who opposed them would suffer the consequences.
Roosevelt and Churchill knew Hitler and Mussolini were nothing more than thugs spreading falsehood and hate in their countries. But in their messaging, there was a sliver of hope the ordinary person could grasp.
Japan cared little, if at all, about Hitler and Mussolini’s beliefs. Their concern was focused more on controlling the Philippines and the Solomon Islands, which would provide them with the raw materials they needed for the Japanese Empire. Douglass MacArthur was the obstacle they needed to eliminate.
The world Ike was in was rapidly changing, and unbeknownst to him, he was about to play a significant role in these world-changing events. Ambrose writes the following:
“The two men had met twice before. In 1930, when Eisenhower was working with the American Battle Monuments Commission in Washington, they had talked. Marshall was so impressed with Eisenhower that he asked the young major to join his staff at the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Another assignment made it impossible for Eisenhower to accept, and they had only one additional brief meeting before 1941.
Marshall had ordered Eisenhower to Washington because he wanted him on the War Plans Division of the General Staff to handle the Far East, especially the Philippines, where Eisenhower had served under General Douglas MacArthur for four and a half years.”— The Supreme Commander Part1: Washington to London: December 1941-June 1942], Pg:4
Ike made a memorable impression on Marshall in 1930. By all accounts, Marshall followed his career. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, he wanted Ike on his staff to work with MacArthur. But he needed to confirm if he would be the right person for the job he had in mind, so Marshall laid out the situation in the Philippines in twenty minutes. When he finished, he asked, “What should be our general line of direction?”
Ike requested Marshall to give him a few hours, a response a season solder such as Marshall expected from someone such as Eisenhower.
When Ike finished typing up his plan, he presented it to Marshall and reviewed it with him at the conclusion the United States should do for the Philippines what the British did for Greece by sending a division there when the Germans threatened the country.
After his presentation, Marshall said to Ike: “I agree with you; do your best to save them.”
Marshall put him in charge of the Philippines and Far East Section of the War Plans Division because Eisenhower showed the willingness to make decisions and accept the results, good or bad. Marshall needed men like Ike who would make decisions and apologize later that as in this situation;
“Following his first meeting with Marshall, Eisenhower had decided to “report to the general only situations of obvious necessity.” Once he carried that decision to the limit. He needed to transport a division to Australia and found that the British ship Queen Mary was available. Eisenhower directed the loading of 15,000 men on her and she started across the Atlantic, without escort, to go around the Cape of Good Hope. The Queen Mary was fast enough to avoid submarines, so Eisenhower was not worried until he received an intercepted cable to Rome from an Italian official in Brazil, reading: “The Queen Mary just refueled here, and with about 15,000 soldiers aboard left this port today steaming southeast across the Atlantic.” Eisenhower envisioned every German submarine in the South Atlantic concentrating on the Cape of Good Hope to send the Queen with her 15,000 men to the bottom.
For a few days he slept fitfully. He did not tell Marshall, since nothing could be done and there was no point in adding to the Chief’s worries. When the ship arrived safely, Eisenhower told the story to Marshall.
The Chief smiled and said, “Eisenhower, I received that intercept at the same time that you did. I was merely hoping that you might not see it and so I said nothing to you until I knew the outcome.”— Ambrose, Stephen E—the Supreme Commander (p. 9).
The tyranny of the Axis powers was afoot the times called for those who could make decisions and ask for permission later.
The United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But for Europe, it started when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, two years before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Hitler’s brand of fascism wasn’t limited to Europe. Their brand of racist hate took root here in the United States, particularly Hitler’s version of fascism, Nazism. Hitler-style groups and supporters sprung up throughout the United States.
February 20, 1939, twenty thousand people descended on Madison Square Garden in support of Adolf Hitler. September 1, 1939, Hitler lit the match that set the world on fire with his fake reason to invade Poland. Britain declared war on Germany two days later (September 3, 1939).
Eisenhower went on to become the Allied Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Eisenhower wrote the following:
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops,” he began. “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.” He then stuffed the note in his wallet and forgot about it.”— The Supreme Commander Stephen E. Ambrose, (p. 418)
When Eisenhower wrote that note, he understood that the fate of the free world was at stake. Operation Overlord was a large and complex operation, and many things could have caused it to go awry.
If Overlord failed, it wouldn’t be because of the men, lack of planning, training, or equipment, and certainly not because of lack of courage.
It would be because of the decision that he, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, made to attack on this day.
June 6, 1944, was the start of the demise of Hitler and Mussolini to replace democracy with tyranny, but it wouldn’t be the last attempt.
World War II saw the end of the Axis triumvirate of Germany, Italy, and Japan. But some see or envision themselves as some form of great leader who believes they have the right to rule because of their wealth, fever religious beliefs, or just good old-fashioned hubris. Donald J. Trump is such a person.
Trump’s desire to return to the presidency has nothing to do with improving life for the average citizen. It’s all about how much money he can extract from the Koch brothers, the Mercer family, Peter Theil, Jeff Yass, Elon Musk, and Zuckerberg. They give him money, and he will provide them with authoritative governance.
Most of all, he wants to return to the Oval Office, where he will once again be one of the most powerful men in the world. Only this time, he will have a far better understanding of how, what, when, and to whom he will want to fleece, imprison, and who to have Seal Team Six to assassinate.
Trump, with the help of Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, and several other flunkies, will dismantle democracy and move the country to a tyrannical autocracy that would have made Hitler and Mussolini proud.
What will make this so terrible is the American people will help Trump do this. When they see that they have killed democracy, they will weep the same way Achilles did when he killed the Amazon Warrior Queen, Penthesilea, and took her helmet off and saw how beautiful she was. He fell in love.
People often do not know and understand what they have until they lose it. “A republic if you can keep it” is what Franklin told Mrs. Howel for two hundred and thirty-seven years. That is what we had.
If Donald J. Trump wins the election, the country will never see it again. He wants to restart tyranny. What Eisenhower and all those men and women did to preserve and protect it will have gone for naught.
Eisenhower stopped tyranny, but Trump will restart it. And like Achilles who killed Penthesilea, those who killed it with their support for Trump and start to feel the foot of tyranny on their necks will suddenly realize just how beautiful democracy was, and they will weep as they recognize the democracy they so loved was destroyed by their hand.
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