American Experience

More about the film IKE

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a hero of our time, the real thing, the soldier of democracy. The last of our presidents born in the 19th century, he was also the only one except for Grant educated at West Point. He was not as tall as most people imagined -- less than six feet -- and the magic trademark smile was not so evident offstage as on.

Those close to him would remember the striking blue of his eyes and how, in conversation, he used his large expressive hands to make a point. The fact that when he stepped to a microphone he sounded like Clark Gable did him no harm. He loved golf and fly fishing, playing bridge, at which he was an expert; and reading for relaxation, he loved pulp westerns. At Churchill's urging, he took up oil painting. His hands, Eisenhower said, were better suited for an ax than a small brush, but the real benefit of painting, he explained, was that it gave him an excuse to be absolutely alone, ''And it interferes not at all with what I'm pleased to call my contemplative powers.''

The often-scrambled syntax of his presidential press conferences was in odd contrast to his considerable skill as a writer. His best-selling book, Crusade in Europe, was not ghost-written by James Michener, as rumored. The author was Eisenhower himself. Indeed, his editor Ken McCormick once said that the general wrote so well there was hardly a need to change a word.

It could be said, too, for certain that he inspired one of the best, most straight-forward campaign buttons in our political history: ''I Like Ike.'' That was in 1952, the year he announced he was a Republican and ran for president for the first time. Everybody liked Ike. Even Harry Truman had tried earlier to get him to run as a Democrat.

To many today Eisenhower is pictured on the one hand as there mastermind of victory over the Nazis, or on the other as a bland old bumbler in the White House. Neither of these notions is accurate. The story is more complex and more interesting than that, as is he.

Film Credits
Credits for the American Experience documentary program IKE.

Program Transcript
IKE transcript.

Interviews
Read and listen to what historians have to say about IKE.

Further Reading
A list of related books, articles, and Web sites.