Eisenhower's Wisdom

In many of my previous posts I have pointed out that Harry Truman was responsible for buying into the so-called Soviet threat even before the war in Europe had ended. He used the atomic bomb on non-military targets in Japan and part of the reason for that was to send a message to the Soviet Union about our post war policy.

Not many people know that Eisenhower was against the dropping of the atomic bomb as a military means to get Japan to surrender. And he was in a position to know. Eisenhower was FDR's favorite general because he understood the human costs of war. Unfortunately he chose the wrong party when he ran for President and got stuck with some bad apples in his administration. His Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles was an irrational anti-Soviet. As a lawyer, Dulles had defended and supported many companies that armed Hitler's Germany.

However, Eisenhower did end the Korean War shortly after he took office as he had promised. He also led us through the fabulous 50s, which was primarily a period of peace and prosperity. His famous farewell speech in 1961 is best remembered for his warning against the military industrial complex. He also had many other humane quotes, that is atypical of a 5 star general. I have selected a few of them.

"Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold, and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children....This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."

"I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone."

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

"Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and co-operation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace."

For all the so-called intellectuals of which Eisenhower was not viewed, he said: "An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows."