How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

By Susan Eisenhower

Thomas Dunne Books, 2020

Reviewed by Jim Gallen

I was motivated to read How Ike Led by a coming book club featuring the author sponsored by the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.  The talk was a valuable supplement to the book.

As Author Susan Eisenhower explained, her goal was not to produce another biography but a study of the principles that guided her grandfather in making decisions.  She draws on a treasure trove of personal experiences, interviews, other historians and records to discern Ike’s lodestars. 

The sixteen chapters address a variety of topics ranging from the personal, such as rebuffing political recommendations from his brother Edgar, the military, as his decision to drop the airborne, described by S. L. A. Marshall as “the lynchpin of the whole operation”, on D-Day, the political, as when he stayed the course and took the heat after the launch of Sputnik, and the private, when he delighted asthmatic children by a trip to the ballgame.

War History Network readers will be most interested in Eisenhower’s military involvement, mostly during his army career, but also in dealing with military matters during his presidency.  Look carefully at Chapter Four “Born To Command”, covering West Point through the restoration of his rank by President Kennedy.  Chapters 14, “Playing The Long Game” and 15 “A Farewell” shed light on intra-service rivalries that irritated Eisenhower, the missile gap claimed by Sen. Kennedy that the Eisenhower Administration could not refute in order to preserve the secrecy of U-2 flights and Ike’s belief that a sound defense could only be supported by a strong economy.

The Author cites actions in support of her subject’s greatness.  She includes accounts of his order that Allied Troops tour liberated concentration camps to provide witnesses who could counter future deniers.  She records how Ike’s 1951 meeting with Sen. Robert Taft helped him hear the call to lead the Republican Party out of its isolationism.  Susan Eisenhower ends with tributes to her grandfather, most eloquently from Lyndon Johnson, comparisons of his tenure with more recent ones and a call for contemporary leaders to follow Ike’s model.

I viewed the early chapters as a relatively light collection of anecdotes that added little to my knowledge about and understanding of Dwight Eisenhower.  As I progressed, I realized that she had merely laid the threads that she would so skillfully weave into a compelling narrative that left me with a longing for new leaders in all fields possessing Dwight Eisenhower’s character traits and the guideposts against which to measure them.