Free Republic

John S.D. Eisenhower, the son of a five-star general turned president who forged his own career in the U.S. Army and then chronicled the history of the American military in numerous books, died Saturday. He was 91.

"On the morning of November 8, 1942, a force of over 70,000 American and British soldiers went ashore on the coast of Vichy French North-West Africa, and a period of close Anglo-American co-operation began. Altogether over 500 ships had carried and guarded the assault force: 102 of them crossing the Atlantic from America; the remainder sailing in two convoys - one fast and one slow - from Britain. They all arrived at their destinations within a few hours of each other and a pattern of smooth timing and organisation had been set."

One troubling aspect of our near-war with Syria is the apparent zeal both political parties have for military action abroad. In fact, no sooner had we dodged the proverbial bullet in Damascus then America’s bipartisan saber-rattlers recalibrated their sites on the big prize, Tehran. Historically speaking, it’s really no surprise that Wilsonian internationalists like John Kerry gravitate toward government intervention. After all, that’s exactly what liberals do at home. What’s harder to explain is why conservative policy has become so hawkish given Republican Party tradition throughout the 20th century.

If President Eisenhower were alive today, the five-star general may be shocked to know that his own speeches are too offensive to be quoted in the military he used to command. A military chaplain has been taken to task for fulfilling the job description that most spiritual leaders (until recently) were hired to do: talk about faith. In a harmless post for his online website, "Chaplain's Corner," Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes (USAF) of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska wrote an inspirational piece called, "No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II." The phrase, which President Eisenhower...

Walt & Lillian Disney with Richard Nixon and his family at Disneyland, 1959 We tend to think of Hollywood as a bastion of leftism, and rightly so. Books like Ron Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood demonstrate the deep-seated left-wing dominance of the entertainment industry. Even with the leftism prevalent in Hollywood’s Golden Age, many unabashed conservatives found success without compromising their principles, including one of the most creative minds in the business — Walt Disney.Several biographers and writers that I’ve read have tried to declare that Walt Disney was apolitical, but I find this conclusion not to be true....

My friend is a veteran of the early war in Viet Nam, when it was not yet an official war, when we were first there on the ground quietly and in small numbers. He saw the war both from the above-ground military perspective and from the slightly clandestine side when he was “loaned” over to Air America, hauling mysterious cargos to and from nameless airstrips in areas we never admitted to. He has all of the usual kinds of stories men tell of their time in the war zone, tales usually punctuated by punch lines not all perhaps fit for...

Liberals ignored my book “Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From the Seventies to Obama” throughout the fall. Now that I’m safely home from my book tour, they feel free to jabber on about their make-believe history of the civil rights movement with abandon. In the hackiest of all hacky articles, Sam Tanenhaus, the man responsible for ruining The New York Times Book Review, has written a cover story in The New Republic, titled: “Original Sin: Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people.” MSNBC has been howling this cliche for a decade — or, as MSNBC’s...

Ordinarily, the news that a long overdue memorial to an historic American leader has been put on hold still again would come as a disappointment. But if you've seen the innocuous design for an Eisenhower memorial in the nation's capitol, the news may come as a relief -- and a welcome opportunity to start all over and try to get it right this time. Innocuous doesn't begin to cover the emptiness, the blahness, the pomp meaninglessness of Frank Gehry's design for this "monument" that is the opposite of monumental. It's just a few saplings around what looks like an...

The USS Eisenhower, an American aircraft carrier that holds eight fighter bomber squadrons and 8,000 men, arrived at the Syrian coast yesterday in the midst of a heavy storm, indicating US preparation for a potential ground intervention. While the Obama administration has not announced any sort of American-led military intervention in the war-torn country, the US is now ready to launch such action "within days" if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decides to use chemical weapons against the opposition, the Times reports.

A previously unknown collection of wartime letters from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to his driver, Capt. Kay Summersby, appears likely to stir renewed debate over whether the two were lovers during the last year of World War II. Both General Eisenhower, who was married, and Captain Summersby initially denied the long-rumored romance. But in 1976, as she was dying of cancer, Miss Summersby published a second book of memoirs of the war years, "Past Forgetting: My Love Affair With Dwight D. Eisenhower," in which she described a passionate but frustrating affair with the Supreme Allied Commander.

This is sample footage of the earliest surviving colour videotape recording which is the Dwight Eisenhower inaugural address to WRC-TV on 22nd May 1958. The first 15 minutes of this event was shot in B&W which you see the president arriving to the building and the news reporter giving details of the event, then about nearly 15 minutes in Robert Sarnoff hits the colour switch and on comes the colour. For the remaining 15 minutes Robert Sarnoff, Dwight Eisenhower and David Sarnoff speak about the station and the colour television technology while being recorded in living colour!!! The whole program...

General Dwight Eisenhower arrived in London to head Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during the last five months of planning for D-Day. He achieved much more than the popular portrayal of managing a political/military alliance. Though he never led troops in combat, his leadership sustained many unprecedented initiatives for the successful Normandy landings. The air assault examples the frightful uncertainties plaguing critical hazards run on this “Day of Days”. The night before D-Day, 20,400 American and British paratroopers dropped behind the Normandy beaches from 1,250 C-47 aircraft plus gliders. This massive assault was attempted just 17 years after Charles...

IN MEMORY AND SALUTE TO OUR BRAVE GENERATION About 12 hours ago European time, 68 years ago as the invasion fleet was en route, this was broadcast: Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over...

"At about 9:30 p.m. (21:30 hours) on the evening of June 4, 1944, Eisenhower called a meeting at his command post at Southwick House in Portsmouth, England. A storm with high winds and rain had forced a one-day postponement of the invasion, originally set for June 5. Eisenhower had learned from his meteorological staff that there would be a break in the weather and that the next day, Tuesday June 6, would be more favorable. He considered all the variables. General Montgomery, his ground commander, favored taking the risk. After a long silence, Eisenhower gave the command, "Okay, we'll go."

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is...

Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran joined the growing chorus of opposition to the proposed Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial on Tuesday, just ahead of Friday’s scheduled hearing on the monument’s controversial design. “I have also met with members of the Eisenhower family and share their objections to the current design,” Moran wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Caller. “While the Eisenhower Memorial is very far along in the process, I have approached several of my colleagues who serve on the commission and encouraged them to rethink their support and allow a new public competition on an alternative design.”

A memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower is scheduled to be unveiled on the Washington Mall in 2015, but first a thorny dispute needs to be resolved between Eisenhower's family and renowned architect Frank Gehry. Ike's relatives think Gehry's design—which features a statue of Eisenhower as boy in Kansas looking out on vistas of his future accomplishments—as a country bumpkin. They are demanding changes before the project moves forward, and Gehry has yet to comment publicly, notes the New York Times. (The AP had a similar story last month.) “He was chief of staff of the Army; he was a two-term...

...The present Eisenhower Memorial design, by postmodernist Frank Gehry, has virtually nothing to do with the Dwight David Eisenhower of history. Plans call for Ike to be memorialized in sculpture as a barefoot farmboy on the Great Plains: not the great wartime leader; not the soldier-diplomat; not the chief executive of the United States who presided over eight years of peace and prosperity. The Gehry conceit seems both obvious and entirely in tune with the postmodern deconstruction of history: There are no great men; there are no great virtues; there is no great striving; nor is there great accomplishment or...

90 year olds marry after 40 years of friendshipUpdated: Dec 29, 2011 12:13 PM EST Charleston, SC (AP) - A 91-year-old newlywed says she expects to spend a dozen more years with her 92-year-old spouse following their wedding at a retirement home on James Island. According to media reports, Margaret McSpadden and retired Air Force Col. William Thomas married Wednesday at Bishop Gadsden. Thomas is a World War II veteran and was President Dwight Eisenhower's personal pilot. He celebrates his 92nd birthday Thursday. McSpadden owned an antique store in Charleston.