Dwight D. Eisenhower: Early life, Military career, and Presidential influence

Jenn: 00:00:00

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about

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to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.

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The eyes of the world are upon you.

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The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you.

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In company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other

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fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine.

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The elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and

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security for ourselves in a free world.

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Your task will not be an easy one.

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Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle hardened.

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He will fight savagely.

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But this is the year 1944.

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Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940 41.

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The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats

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in open battle, man to man.

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Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their

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capacity to wage war on the ground.

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Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in

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weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great

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reserves of trained fighting men.

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The tide has turned.

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The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

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I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle.

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We will accept nothing less than full victory.

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Good luck.

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And let us all beseech the blessing of almighty God upon

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this great and noble undertaking.

Scott: 00:01:49

Welcome to Top of History.

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I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.

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Hello!

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On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels,

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YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

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with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

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So, Jen, I'm excited.

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Because we are starting our road trip series.

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For those listening, if you follow us on Instagram or YouTube, you

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might know we traveled for about two and a half weeks, and we saw a

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ton of history all across the West.

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So to celebrate that, Jen, I have a history joke for you.

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Okay.

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What kind of tea did the American colonists want at the Boston Tea Party?

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Um,

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I don't know.

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Liberty.

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So for those listening, if you like that joke, or perhaps if you have a better

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one, leave us a review on Apple podcast or Spotify, wherever you're listening.

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The reviews really do help us the show grow.

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And you know that the History Channel doesn't do jokes like that.

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There's probably better.

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So help us out and let's get more people listening to talk with history Before

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we go into the main subject tonight.

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This is again.

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This is gonna be our first stop on our road trip I do we did get another

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five star review on the podcast.

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This is someone that I actually know so I'm gonna read this out This is from

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Jennifer Medeiros fit is that is the name?

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Five stars hands down the best history podcast around Scott

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and Jen are a dynamic Duo and an absolute delight to listen to you.

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My wife and I have been using the podcast and YouTube episodes

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to help enhance our trips.

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The tips are so helpful.

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This is one of those shows.

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It just puts me in a good mood.

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The more somber topics are treated with reverence and respect they deserve.

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But beyond that, the show is just plain fun.

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I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a great podcast that is

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extremely informative without being overly stuffy or academic Jason M.

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So it's a husband and wife.

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Uh, he actually, I used to work with him, um, he actually, he texted me

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that the other day and just said he's really been enjoying the show.

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So, uh, Jason and Jennifer, thank you so much for the review.

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It really does mean a lot to get the feedback like that because right

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now our listenership is, is limited.

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We're, we're growing and, and those, those reviews really do, really do help us.

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So, so thank you so much guys.

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What are we talking about?

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What's kind of the first place we stopped on our road

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trip?

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Well, after we stopped in.

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Nashville, we were driving across Kansas, and we saw signs for the

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Eisenhower, um, Presidential Museum and Library, and we're like, oh my

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gosh, it's right along the interstate.

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Yeah, we hadn't planned on stopping there.

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We hadn't planned on stopping there, but it was, it's right off the interstate, and

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it was a perfect time stop with our kids.

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And so we stopped at the Dwight D.

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Eisenhower Presidential Library and

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Museum.

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That's right.

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So, and I don't think...

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Too many commonly know that he is from the middle of nowhere, Kansas.

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Yeah, he is

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from Abilene, Kansas So that's where we stopped we stopped It's basically

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the middle of Kansas and he moved there when he was two years old He was born in

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Texas, but he there's his family moves there when he's two so he considers it his

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hometown Yeah, he was born.

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I believe in Denison,

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Texas, Denison, Texas, October 14th 1890

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1890 And then we, we kind of, we get off the freeway, we're like, Hey,

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this actually works out perfectly for us.

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It's right.

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It was right on our lunch break.

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It's, it's a few minutes off the freeway, off the 70.

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And so we, we drive in there and we are smack in the middle of Kansas.

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There's, there's not much out there and it is, it's one of those towns,

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like the thing that it's known for is being the hometown of Kansas.

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of Dwight D.

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Eisenhower.

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So it's Eisenhower's Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home.

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And that's kind of why the museum and library is located there, is because it's

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kind of built around his boyhood home.

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And, um, the address is 200 Southeast 4th Street in Abilene, Kansas.

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And it's basically, it's a 22 acre Spread campus and you can stop there.

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The admission is free and it's going to encompass a library, a museum.

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There's a chapel where he is buried with his wife and son, and then

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they have like a visitor center.

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where they have a movie and a gift shop, but they also have a nice

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kind of garden with a statue of him.

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And of course his boyhood home.

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The

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thing is, we didn't have a ton of time this because

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this wasn't planned for us.

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We didn't go into the museum.

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We didn't go inside too much of the stuff, the visitor center a little bit.

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And then we kind of toured around, like you said, that the.

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larger kind of garden area where the statue was and we saw his rest in place.

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Yeah, we

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take you outside of everything.

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We didn't go in the museum or the library.

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We go to the statue, we go outside the boyhood home, but we go into

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the place of meditation, the burial site, and we go into the visitors.

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Yeah, and that's

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all in the video.

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I'll link that in the show notes, but...

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Let's step back and kind of start from the beginning for here.

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So tell us a little bit about Ike.

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Ike.

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So he, again, he's born in Denison, Texas.

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He's born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14th, 1890.

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He's the third of seven boys.

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Can you imagine?

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I cannot.

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And he's born to Ida Stover and David Eisenhower.

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So if you recognize David David, it wasn't long, his mother soon

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reversed his name to avoid confusion.

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So we know him as Dwight David Eisenhower.

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Uh, but he was born David Dwight Eisenhower.

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So it wasn't, um, long, two years after he's born, they moved to Abilene, Kansas.

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And the house...

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That you see there, they move into in 1898, so he's actually eight years

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old when he moves into that house, but that is the one that survives.

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That's his boyhood home.

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And that house is there all the way up until, I think it's

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1946, when Ida will pass away.

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Okay, so all the boys are raised there.

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Her, his father will pass away there.

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His mother will pass away in 1946 and 1947, it becomes open to the public.

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So it's given to the National Park Service.

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So what you see of that boyhood home is the Eisenhowers

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were the last to live there.

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And then after Ida passes, it's open to the public for everyone.

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And what's interesting about that house is that it's all through the war.

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So I mentioned that in the video, like they're going to be getting

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telegrams as their son is the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.

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Uh, in Germany.

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So they're going to be getting all that updates, all those, um,

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telegrams and things along that.

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They're going to be in that house as it happens.

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And what's very interesting is Ida was like anti war.

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Oh, interesting.

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She did not believe in the war, but she had some books

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about war, um, in the house.

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And he read them as a young kid and he was very interested in it.

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But what actually happened for Eisenhower is they don't come

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from a lot of means, right?

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And so he, him and his older brother decided we will go to college in tandem.

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You go a year, I'll work to pay for you to go.

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I'll go a year and you pay to work while I go and we'll

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finish college back and forth.

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forth like that.

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Kind of think of it.

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It's a wonderful life when him and his brother are like, I'm going to

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work so to pay for you and you can work, you know, well, what happens

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is his brother is doing so well.

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He asks to stay another year.

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Ike is like, yes, I'll work some more, um, to pay for you to stay in college.

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And then someone says to him, you know, you could go to

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like the academies for free.

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And he's like, Oh, I never really thought about that.

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So he applies to the Naval Academy and West Point.

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Now he's too, he gets an appointment for both, but he's too old at the

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time to go to the Naval Academy.

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Oh, no way.

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So he goes to West Point.

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So he goes to West Point in 1915 when he actually graduates

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Abilene High School in 1909.

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Oh

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wow.

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So he was, he was

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older going through.

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Oh wait.

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So he graduates in 1915.

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Okay.

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So yeah, he's class of 1909.

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His appointment to West Point in 1911, so two years after he's graduated.

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And then, so he's, he's older and he's an average student.

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He's not, you know, he's not a top of his class, he's not MacArthur, right?

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The highest ever graduated from West Point, which is interesting because

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he'll work for MacArthur and they're both five star generals in the end.

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But, um, so he graduates in 1915 and he does it because it's free.

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So you can

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understand.

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I mean, that's, that's why I went to the Naval Academy.

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My parents didn't

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have to pay.

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Exactly.

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And that's why I got the RIT scholarship to Penn State.

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So he saw the same means that we saw, right?

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We're able to get an education through service.

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That's, that's so interesting.

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And it kind of makes me wonder what that conversation was like with his mom.

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Who's kind of obviously.

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We find out later, kind of anti war, right, and here is his

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son going to West Point, right?

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One of the most prestigious military academies in the world.

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You know, I'm sure back then, and if you think about it, right, if he's

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born in 1890 and here it is, you know, let's say 20 years later, right,

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he goes approximately when he's 20.

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That's not that long after that, that mentality of getting your

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start in the world through the military is still relative.

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It must.

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have still been in the culture back then.

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Cause even think about some of the, we talk about civil war and American

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revolution, a lot of businessmen either went into the military when

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conflicts happened or they got their start there to kind of get themselves

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established.

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Absolutely.

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Like even doing, you think of Hamilton, he keeps saying, I wish

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there was a war we can make our name.

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Right.

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Right.

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Because he has no means he's coming from no means.

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So this was a way...

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for young men who wanted to make their name for themselves to really establish

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themselves in society and when you think about Other people who have done this

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remember Lincoln's son Robert he wants to join the Civil War right because even

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as a gentleman who has means and he's able to go to school He still wants to

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be a part of it because this really is at the time and maybe even so today Men

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really measured this as your service.

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As you know, you have established yourself as a man in society.

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You're defending something, you're part of something, you're, you know, serving

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your country.

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Yeah.

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I mean, and, and obviously military service is still highly respected today.

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Right.

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And that's gone.

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Mm-hmm.

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come and gone in waves.

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Mm-hmm.

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, you know, in, in, in the country, depending on conflicts going on.

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But back then, I think it was still even more so that old school mentality of.

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seen very, very highly in society as like, Oh, you're an army officer

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or you're a naval officer, right?

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That's you know, they do this in movies women even sought out, you

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know Oh, he's a captain in the army or the Navy or whatever it is.

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Yeah, so that's interesting that that's Uh that he went to West Point.

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Yeah, so he went to West Point.

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Um, it's not even long.

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So he's graduating in 1915 He gets married in 1916.

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So he meets, uh, Mamie Dowd.

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She is they meet in Texas She's from Iowa

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and you know what if you see young pictures of Dwight Eisenhower, he

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is a handsome man He is a very handsome.

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I could look it up and watch our video But you, you look up some young videos

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of him and his wife, like, when he's still at Their wedding picture, yeah.

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He is a good looking

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guy.

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If you look at their wedding picture, she's sitting and he's

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standing with his arms crossed.

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He didn't want to wrinkle his uniform.

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Yeah.

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That's why he's not sitting down.

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But, uh, yeah, he's.

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It's very handsome.

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And they get married, I think, in someone's living room.

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So it's of that time again where marriages happen relatively quickly.

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And as you can imagine, World War I, we're on the cusp of World War I here.

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So he doesn't get to go over for World War I, but he ends up training a tank crew.

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And he will do that in 1918.

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He will get stationed outside of Gettysburg, and that'll be

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more relevant later when we get to the Eisenhower Gettysburg.

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Gettysburg Ranch.

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So it's a, it's an area he always loved and that he's stationed out there

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training a tank crew and then, you know, he's going to, of course, work his way

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up in the military by World War II.

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You know, he's Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff for MacArthur, and then he becomes

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Supreme Allied Commander and then he of the expeditionary forces for Germany.

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And that's when he becomes a five star general, uh, in 1944, but he's a

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part of two big campaigns that really make his name Operation Torch in North

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Africa, very big tank driven operation and then D Day invasion of Normandy in

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1944.

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If you're listening and you haven't seen our video on this, I

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actually found, I think it was a CBS interview where he goes back.

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with Walter Cronkite to Normandy 20 years after D Day.

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Yes.

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And so it's really, really neat.

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So I put that footage in the video, and I highly encourage

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you to go watch it because it's really neat to see Eisenhower.

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I mean, he's talking about all these movements.

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He's talking about the operation.

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He's talking about all this stuff like he remembered it yesterday.

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I went over to a...

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The field from which the, uh, Airborne, the

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American Airborne, started out.

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Now, I couldn't go to all these fields because there were many of them.

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But I did go into the 101st Division.

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And, um, it was a very fine experience.

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They were getting ready and all camouflaged and their

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faces blackened and all this.

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And they saw me and of course they recognized me and said,

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Now quit worrying, General.

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We'll take care of this thing for you.

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That kind of, of a thing was a good feeling.

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Yeah.

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And what I really appreciated about that interview, and we'll talk

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about this more, what, what he What he says is important to him.

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So he has two sons, and his first son, Daud, which is his wife's maiden name,

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is born a year after they're married.

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And Daud will actually pass away at three years old from scarlet fever.

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Eisenhower is reluctant to ever discuss his death.

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And that is when I talked about the place of meditation where

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Eisenhower was buried with his wife.

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Their son is also buried there.

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Son was initially buried in Denver.

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Colorado, but when they're both interred there in Abilene, Kansas,

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they reinterred their son with them.

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And we have a second son, John, who's born in 1922, and he graduates

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from West Point on D Day, 1944.

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And that's what Eisenhower says he remembers, right?

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I remember D Day, but I remember thinking of the young men who are doing this,

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who are actually in this operation.

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And I think of my son, because it's not, he's so tied.

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to it.

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Not only is he ordering men to this fight, his son is going

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to be a part of this fight.

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And this is his only surviving child.

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So it's for me, I just, it says a lot about the man that that's

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what he remembers about that day.

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And the quote that I really love, like, when you think that this is

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happening in 1944, and you're going to actually get the surrender of Germany

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in May of A month later, he's going to give the quote, The proudest thing I

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can claim is that I am from Abilene.

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He says that in June of 1945.

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So, a month after the, the German surrender for World War II, that's the

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proudest thing he's, to me, it just says a lot about the character of the man.

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And so, to be in Abilene, Kansas, and see That place that he's proud

Jenn: 00:17:41

of, to see where he's really tethered and anchored, it does say a lot about

Jenn: 00:17:45

who he is, and I appreciated being there, and being a part of that.

Scott: 00:17:50

Yeah, hearing his perspective in that interview, and it was a 90 minute

Scott: 00:17:54

interview, and I didn't end up watching the whole thing, I tried to find some

Scott: 00:17:57

of the interesting bits for our video.

Scott: 00:17:59

But hearing his perspective on what he thought about, like you said,

Scott: 00:18:03

his son graduating from West Point on D Day, the day that this is

Scott: 00:18:07

happening, and he basically says,

Jenn: 00:18:10

Walter, this D Day has a very special meaning for me.

Jenn: 00:18:14

My mind goes back so often to this fact.

Jenn: 00:18:18

On D Day, my own son graduated from West Point.

Jenn: 00:18:22

And uh, after his...

Jenn: 00:18:25

Training, uh, with his division, he came over with the 71st Division, but

Jenn: 00:18:29

that was some time after this event.

Jenn: 00:18:33

But on the very day he was graduating, these men came here.

Jenn: 00:18:40

British, and our other allies, Americans.

Jenn: 00:18:43

To storm these beaches, for one purpose only.

Jenn: 00:18:48

Not to gain anything for ourselves.

Jenn: 00:18:51

Not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest.

Jenn: 00:18:57

But just to preserve freedom.

Scott: 00:19:07

They're not doing it for themselves, they're not doing it for

Scott: 00:19:09

glory, they're doing it for freedom.

Scott: 00:19:11

Yes.

Scott: 00:19:11

And just kind of hearing that perspective from him, again this was

Scott: 00:19:15

20 years after the fact, right, so 64.

Scott: 00:19:17

Yes.

Scott: 00:19:18

Um, was...

Scott: 00:19:20

really moving watching that.

Scott: 00:19:22

And so I, again, I highly encourage you to kind of go watch our video

Scott: 00:19:25

because that's a really neat piece of that interview to kind of hear

Scott: 00:19:28

directly from the man himself.

Jenn: 00:19:33

I wanted to bring up some other things about.

Jenn: 00:19:36

Eisenhower as well He will be the 34th president of the

Jenn: 00:19:40

united states from 1953 to 1961.

Jenn: 00:19:44

So he's the president right after truman Right after world war ii and

Jenn: 00:19:48

then jfk is going to be after him.

Jenn: 00:19:50

So you think we have like it's kind of like Out with the old and with

Jenn: 00:19:54

the new with JFK, but him and JFK actually got along very well and Eisen

Jenn: 00:19:59

Eisenhower is a two term president 1953 to 1961 so you think eight years

Jenn: 00:20:06

he's president of the United States.

Jenn: 00:20:08

I There's a lot of opinions about Eisenhower and maybe some follies that

Jenn: 00:20:13

he had but the two things I really remember about his presidency for

Jenn: 00:20:16

me Is the Civil Rights of 1957, when he, uh, brought the army troops in to

Jenn: 00:20:22

enforce the federal orders to integrate Little Rock, Kansas, or Arkansas?

Jenn: 00:20:27

Little Rock, Arkansas.

Jenn: 00:20:29

To me, that said a lot about the man.

Jenn: 00:20:31

Plus, we were in Newport, Rhode Island, at the house that he was playing

Jenn: 00:20:35

golf at when he grabbed the phone and called in the federal troops.

Jenn: 00:20:40

Yeah, he was playing golf on the golf course when he was here and like, They're

Jenn: 00:20:44

creating a ruckus down there and he's like, okay, I'm not dealing with this.

Jenn: 00:20:47

Federal troops are going to go in and get these kids into the school.

Jenn: 00:20:49

Wow.

Jenn: 00:20:50

So he's like doing this on the golf course, which he got a lot

Jenn: 00:20:52

of criticism for the golf and then, um, the interstate system.

Jenn: 00:20:56

So we were on the interstate system stopping to see Eisenhower when

Jenn: 00:21:01

Eisenhower really is the one who started the interstate system in America.

Jenn: 00:21:06

And it's, you know, it's officially known as the Eisenhower Internate System.

Jenn: 00:21:09

Interstate system.

Jenn: 00:21:10

And for him, he saw the importance of the autobahn in Germany and how

Jenn: 00:21:15

much it really connected the country that he came back to America and

Jenn: 00:21:20

installed that here in our country.

Jenn: 00:21:21

So those are the two things I really think of when I think of

Jenn: 00:21:23

the Eisenhower Presidency, the Eisenhower, uh, Gettysburg Ranch.

Jenn: 00:21:29

Yes.

Jenn: 00:21:29

So we have a video from

Scott: 00:21:30

there.

Scott: 00:21:31

We do.

Scott: 00:21:31

That was actually our first video on him, was you going out there

Jenn: 00:21:34

and doing that.

Jenn: 00:21:34

Yes.

Jenn: 00:21:35

So, there's other things that we've kind of connected ourselves with Eisenhower.

Jenn: 00:21:40

They've had this ranch outside of Gettysburg, because

Jenn: 00:21:43

again, he's trained there.

Jenn: 00:21:44

He likes the area.

Jenn: 00:21:46

It's close to DC.

Jenn: 00:21:48

It's close enough.

Jenn: 00:21:49

And maybe as a military spouse has never had a home where she can display

Jenn: 00:21:56

The things they buy from different countries or the place they're

Jenn: 00:21:59

stationed and she, we totally get that.

Jenn: 00:22:01

We totally get that.

Jenn: 00:22:03

So she asked for a place where we can have that even if we're still moving,

Jenn: 00:22:07

because this is before he becomes president, we can come back to and I can.

Jenn: 00:22:11

Have a house that I can decorate so 1950 they buy this ranch right

Jenn: 00:22:17

outside of Gettysburg I mean, it's like literally adjacent to the

Jenn: 00:22:19

battlefield and the National Park Service takes care of it today So

Jenn: 00:22:23

it's like you can visit Gettysburg Visitor Center and they'll say oh, this

Jenn: 00:22:26

is Gettysburg The Eisenhower Ranch.

Jenn: 00:22:29

It's open today, too.

Jenn: 00:22:30

You can take a bus over from there.

Jenn: 00:22:32

So 1950 they buy this farm Gettysburg farm, uh, and it's their retreats,

Jenn: 00:22:40

even when he's in office as president.

Jenn: 00:22:43

So when he comes into the presidency, they will go to the

Jenn: 00:22:48

Gettysburg farm as a retreat.

Jenn: 00:22:50

And as a result, Khrushchev will visit them there, Churchill will

Jenn: 00:22:54

visit them there, Nixon, his vice president visits, visits him there.

Jenn: 00:22:58

Reagan visits

Scott: 00:22:59

him there.

Scott: 00:23:00

There's a lot of footage of that.

Scott: 00:23:01

Yeah.

Scott: 00:23:01

So I put some of that footage.

Scott: 00:23:03

Um, I think in the.

Scott: 00:23:05

Gettysburg farm, you know, his, his Gettysburg estate video.

Scott: 00:23:09

I put the video of Churchill it, there's video of him and Churchill driving

Scott: 00:23:13

around on his farm, you know, showing off his cows because that's, you said

Scott: 00:23:17

in the video, that's what he liked.

Scott: 00:23:18

He liked to do.

Scott: 00:23:19

He liked to show people.

Jenn: 00:23:20

It

Scott: 00:23:20

was breeding system.

Scott: 00:23:21

It was, it was really, really neat.

Scott: 00:23:22

And I can see, especially in that area, right.

Scott: 00:23:24

It's so open and so green.

Scott: 00:23:26

It's a beautiful area out there, out there in Gettysburg.

Scott: 00:23:29

I can see why they would want to settle down

Jenn: 00:23:30

there.

Jenn: 00:23:31

So kind of reminds me of the boyhood home.

Jenn: 00:23:33

Yep.

Jenn: 00:23:33

So here's the boyhood home that his family has lived in pretty much their whole life

Jenn: 00:23:37

since he's eight until his mother passes away and it goes to National Park Service.

Jenn: 00:23:42

So here's the farm, the Gettysburg farm that they will

Jenn: 00:23:45

live in after his presidency.

Jenn: 00:23:47

They will go and retire to that farm.

Jenn: 00:23:49

They, that's where they spend the rest of their years until Ike dies

Jenn: 00:23:53

and then maybe stays there until she dies and the very next year the

Jenn: 00:23:56

National Park Service will open it up.

Scott: 00:23:57

Well, and I believe, and you mentioned this in the Gettysburg

Scott: 00:24:00

video, that he is the reason for it.

Scott: 00:24:03

That Camp David isn't too far from there, right?

Scott: 00:24:06

The Camp David that all the presidents kind of go to to retreat.

Scott: 00:24:09

It's named after his grandson.

Jenn: 00:24:11

His grandson.

Jenn: 00:24:11

So it used to be called Shangri La.

Jenn: 00:24:13

And then he called it Camp David after his grandson, and it's

Jenn: 00:24:15

still called Camp David today.

Jenn: 00:24:17

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:17

And that's Eisenhower's grandson.

Scott: 00:24:22

Yeah.

Scott: 00:24:22

And it's been, it was neat, too, that some of the comments that we got on

Scott: 00:24:24

this video because some of our audience, you know, like you said, everybody's

Scott: 00:24:28

got different opinions, but some of our audience, you know, remember.

Scott: 00:24:32

him being around.

Scott: 00:24:33

Mm hmm.

Scott: 00:24:33

And so some of them reached out.

Scott: 00:24:35

Like I think Able, she comments on our videos all the time and she

Scott: 00:24:38

talks about like, and she actually had like a personal experience

Scott: 00:24:40

with him when she was a young girl.

Scott: 00:24:42

Mm hmm.

Scott: 00:24:42

Um, and so she, they were watching some debate her and her grandmother

Scott: 00:24:46

or her mother or something like that.

Scott: 00:24:48

And the.

Scott: 00:24:48

She was close enough where, I guess, there were the people who were debating

Scott: 00:24:52

or other people in the political parties around were kind of taken with her

Scott: 00:24:56

mother, her grandmother, whoever it was.

Scott: 00:24:57

And the president, and she was close enough to the president, the president

Scott: 00:25:00

kind of like said hello to her because she was the same age as, as his grandson.

Scott: 00:25:05

Yes.

Scott: 00:25:06

And so she, she was very polite and, you know, said hello back and he just

Scott: 00:25:09

kind of, you know, pat her on the head.

Scott: 00:25:11

And then he, she watched the proceedings like with the president,

Scott: 00:25:14

you know, right, right there.

Scott: 00:25:14

So it.

Scott: 00:25:15

And then, uh, I think Rick was someone else who comments

Scott: 00:25:19

on our videos a fair amount.

Scott: 00:25:21

And he brought up, like you said, some of the follies in his opinion,

Scott: 00:25:25

some of the things they did with bringing, uh, bringing down, you

Scott: 00:25:28

know, certain dictators around the world, right, that led to future

Scott: 00:25:31

events and this, that and the other.

Scott: 00:25:32

So it's always going to be opinions one side or the other.

Jenn: 00:25:36

Absolutely.

Jenn: 00:25:37

Um, but even Rick said he still sees them as.

Jenn: 00:25:40

Number three.

Jenn: 00:25:41

Oh, yeah.

Jenn: 00:25:41

Top three.

Jenn: 00:25:42

I

Scott: 00:25:42

mean, I think his example was the interstate highway system.

Scott: 00:25:45

He said he'd used President Eisenhower had used the CIA to depose Prime

Scott: 00:25:50

Minister Mohamed Mozaddiq, um, to overthrow and consolidate the

Scott: 00:25:54

rule of Mohamed Reza Pahlavi.

Scott: 00:25:56

And And so bringing down that person actually kind of cleared the way for

Scott: 00:26:01

Ayatollah Khamenei, you know, and then the American Hostage Crisis in 1979.

Scott: 00:26:05

And then the Iran Revolution.

Scott: 00:26:07

Right.

Scott: 00:26:07

And nobody can foresee that.

Scott: 00:26:09

You can't foresee that.

Scott: 00:26:10

You can't foresee that.

Scott: 00:26:11

So, but it, everything has a, has a cause and effect.

Scott: 00:26:14

It

Jenn: 00:26:14

does.

Jenn: 00:26:14

But Eisenhower was so respected, just like you said, that even JFK, Bay of Pigs is,

Jenn: 00:26:21

he still consults with Eisenhower, right?

Jenn: 00:26:24

And, cause Eisenhower is.

Jenn: 00:26:26

a military man.

Jenn: 00:26:27

And we talked about this in my video.

Jenn: 00:26:29

Someone tries to correct me and says, don't call him General Eisenhower,

Jenn: 00:26:32

call him President Eisenhower.

Jenn: 00:26:34

People like to be referred to as the highest rank they ever had.

Jenn: 00:26:37

Yes, except for Eisenhower, because Eisenhower actually asked.

Jenn: 00:26:41

The standing president who was John F.

Jenn: 00:26:43

Kennedy, can you, can you put my name back to General Eisenhower instead

Jenn: 00:26:48

of President Eisenhower, I would like to be considered a general.

Jenn: 00:26:52

And JFK didn't understand that request, but he did it because even

Jenn: 00:26:57

though JFK is a military man himself.

Jenn: 00:26:59

But he doesn't rise to the rank of five star general and you know, there are

Jenn: 00:27:03

five five star generals And if you can remember, you know, it's Brady, Marshall,

Jenn: 00:27:07

Arnold, MacArthur and Eisenhower And so when you're one of five you can imagine

Jenn: 00:27:13

you want to be remembered as that Because you're not one of five presidents, right?

Jenn: 00:27:17

You're forty something now, but His statue in Abilene, Kansas is him in uniform and

Jenn: 00:27:23

we talked a little bit about the jacket He's wearing from the army is even today

Jenn: 00:27:28

referred to as an Eisenhower jacket.

Jenn: 00:27:31

Yep, the Ike jacket.

Jenn: 00:27:32

So you don't even like I really didn't put two together when two and two

Jenn: 00:27:35

together when I was in the military You know grab your Eisenhower.

Jenn: 00:27:38

Where's my Eisenhower?

Jenn: 00:27:39

Like you just know that's what the jacket is called But I never really

Jenn: 00:27:42

thought it's because of President Eisenhower and President Eisenhower

Jenn: 00:27:47

or General Eisenhower is actually buried in full military uniform.

Jenn: 00:27:50

Yeah,

Scott: 00:27:51

you do, you do talk about that.

Scott: 00:27:52

And, um, again, I think that really speaks to the man that, that

Scott: 00:27:58

we got to briefly visit, right?

Scott: 00:28:00

To briefly visit his, his home smack in the middle of Kansas, Abilene, Kansas.

Scott: 00:28:05

I just, it just kind of made me smile the whole time to see this kind of

Scott: 00:28:09

true American story of someone who came from You know, not much means, right?

Scott: 00:28:15

They moved from Texas to Kansas for whatever reason it was.

Scott: 00:28:19

It's not like there was much there in Kansas back in the day.

Scott: 00:28:21

There was no presidential library there because there was

Scott: 00:28:24

no president from there yet.

Scott: 00:28:25

And here he was kind of made his way up through West Point all the way

Scott: 00:28:28

up to five star general eventually president and settled down after that.

Scott: 00:28:32

So it was really, really neat to, to visit him and to, to see that and to

Scott: 00:28:37

kind of walk his footsteps, put that in a video and share that with everybody.

Scott: 00:28:41

So for those listening, thank you for listening to this podcast, our

Scott: 00:28:44

first episode on our road trip series.

Scott: 00:28:46

We really do appreciate it.

Scott: 00:28:48

Stick around for the next few weeks.

Scott: 00:28:49

Share this with your friends because we have a whole lot

Scott: 00:28:51

of Western history coming up.

Scott: 00:28:53

So we kept going west, you know, after we visited Abilene and

Scott: 00:28:57

we've got Buffalo Bill Cody.

Scott: 00:28:59

We've got Wild Bill Hickok and Deadwood and Little Bighorn, all

Scott: 00:29:03

sorts of fun topics coming up.

Scott: 00:29:05

If you want to support the show and you enjoy these podcasts, you

Scott: 00:29:08

can support us at talkwithhistory.

Scott: 00:29:10

com slash support.

Scott: 00:29:11

We rely on you, our community, to grow and we appreciate you all.

Scott: 00:29:15

Every day.

Scott: 00:29:16

We'll talk to you next time.

Jenn: 00:29:17

Thank you.

Jenn: 00:29:22

There's the coast of Normandy, whose beaches, Gold, Juneau, Sword, Utah,

Jenn: 00:29:32

and Omaha, now live in history.

Jenn: 00:29:36

Along this narrow stretch of sand and sea.

Jenn: 00:29:40

A battle was joined between the world of freedom and the world of tyranny.

Jenn: 00:29:46

For nearly five terror filled years, hundreds of millions

Jenn: 00:29:50

of people lived under the Nazi jackboot that had enslaved Europe.

Jenn: 00:29:56

The Allied troops were fighting to win a foothold at first, and total victory.

Jenn: 00:30:02

And, if possible, to carve out a dream of a world without war.

Jenn: 00:30:08

Twenty years ago, in this, our own time, the largest invasion in history

Jenn: 00:30:14

assaulted Hitler's European fortress.

Jenn: 00:30:17

Beaches were beachheads then, and the world was at war.

Jenn: 00:30:24

This is the last alerting announcement from Supreme Headquarters,

Jenn: 00:30:27

Allied Expeditionary Force.

Jenn: 00:30:32

General Dwight D.

Jenn: 00:30:33

Eisenhower.

Jenn: 00:30:35

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Jenn: 00:30:41

You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we

Jenn: 00:30:44

have striven these many months.