Becoming Eisenhower: How Ike Rose from Obscurity to Supreme Allied Commander

“Michael Lee Lanning, an army veteran and prolific military historian, in . . . Becoming Eisenhower focuses on the people and events that led to Eisenhower’s greatness.”

Great leaders throughout history have been shaped by family members, colleagues and mentors, and historical circumstances. Dwight Eisenhower was one of America’s greatest military and political leaders. As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower oversaw an alliance that invaded North Africa, Sicily, the Italian mainland, and northwest Europe, and that produced the defeat of Axis armies in the war’s western theater. Later, as President of the United States, Eisenhower successfully pursued peace and prosperity for eight years of the Cold War.

Michael Lee Lanning, an army veteran and prolific military historian, in his new book Becoming Eisenhower focuses on the people and events that led to Eisenhower’s greatness. Manning tells this story using Eisenhower’s diaries, his books Crusade in Europe and At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, and notable biographies of Eisenhower written by Stephen Ambrose, Michael Korda, Carlo D’Este, Jean Edward Smith, and others.

Eisenhower’s journey to greatness began in modest circumstances in Denison, Texas, where Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. The family soon moved to Abilene, Kansas, where Dwight was one of six Eisenhower boys who grew up in a small home where hard work and religion was part of everyday life. Manning notes that Eisenhower acquired values not only from his family but also the people of Abilene “who fostered an environment that was strictly American heartland with an attitude of ‘wholesomeness.’”

At an early age, Manning notes, Eisenhower read historical works and biographies of great leaders, such as George Washington. Writing came naturally to Eisenhower, and it was his reading and writing skills that later facilitated his army career. He also worked long hours moving blocks of ice to freezers and feeding coal into a furnace at the Belle Springs Creamery. He earned an appointment to West Point based on his grade on a competitive examination that was part of a Kansas senator’s selection process. He chose West Point for the free education.

Eisenhower joined the Class of 1915 at West Point, known later as “the class that the stars fell on” because so many members later became generals. Manning notes that Eisenhower was an average student who often received demerits. He played football, poker, and started smoking cigarettes while at West Point. He was a well-liked cadet who some professors said was “born to command.”

Eisenhower along with his friend George Patton promoted the concept of mechanized warfare and the utilization of tanks. Patton excelled at field command, something Eisenhower eagerly sought but that was denied to him due to his excellent staff work. Unlike Patton, MacArthur, and Bradley, Eisenhower would never command troops in the field. His work in World War II was at a higher and political level.

It was during and after the First World War that Eisenhower’s talents for administrative and staff work began to be noticed by army leadership, including Generals John Pershing and Fox Conner. It was Conner, Manning writes, who “provided the influence and teachings that prepared Ike for the future.” Conner encouraged Eisenhower to read and re-read the great Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s On War. Conner advised Ike: “Never fight unless you have to, never fight alone, and never fight for long.”

Conner also urged Eisenhower to become acquainted with another rising star in the army: George Marshall. It would be Marshall in the lead-up to the Second World War who would promote Eisenhower over more than a hundred senior officers to command the armies that would win the war in the west. Before that, however, Eisenhower made himself indispensable as a staff officer to General Pershing and later to General Douglas MacArthur. Eisenhower worked for MacArthur when the latter served as the army’s Chief of Staff and later in the Philippines before the outbreak of war with Japan. It was a rocky relationship but one that also advanced Eisenhower’s career.

Eisenhower’s role as Supreme Commander in Europe, and later as head of NATO, helped prepare him for the presidency. Throughout his life, Dwight Eisenhower had important and influential patrons that helped pave the way to success. But in the end, as Manning’s delightful book makes clear, Eisenhower rose to the occasion each time he was given an opportunity to undertake important assignments and duties. Much of his greatness came from within. When Eisenhower died in March 1969, then President Richard Nixon, who had served as Eisenhower’s vice president, noted that Eisenhower was “the world’s most admired and respected man, truly the first citizen of the world.”