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O lucky man!A Republican president who was touched by fortuneMar 17th 2012 | from the print edition
Eisenhower: In War and Peace.By Jean Edward Smith. Random House; 950 pages; $40.Buy from Amazon.com NAPOLEON believed that ability counts for littlein military men if they are not also blessed with opportunity; what he wanted most were lucky generals. Jean Edward Smith’s superb new biography of the “military statesman” who became the 34th president of the United States shows how often Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower’s opportunities owed much to what Niccolò Machiavelli called fortuna. In this section · »O lucky man! · Go gentle into that good night He was lucky that West Point adopted competitive entry in time for him to be selected and that he was allowed to serve in spite of a football injury. His career was rescued repeatedly by older generals, who recognised his ability. His guardian angel, Fox Conner, whom he met at Camp Meade in 1919, became a lifelong mentor. Conner protected him from court martial over a trivial allowance claim in 1921, sent him to the general staff school at Fort Leavenworth in 1925, and a year later rescued him from command of the 24th Regiment, a unit for black soldiers which had such a bad name it was known as the “infantry’s Siberia”. Opportunity came at last when George Marshall chose Eisenhower to be commander of all American forces in Europe in 1942, a year after America entered the war, and then when Franklin Roosevelt chose him, instead of Marshall, as the D-Day commander, partly because of Winston Churchill’s dislike of Marshall. It was an almost miraculous career. Although he had seen no action, Eisenhower was promoted over 228 senior officers when he took over the American high command in north Africa, and he leapfrogged over more experienced British soldiers when he was made commander in chief of the allied forces just seven months later, in 1943. Yet neither north Africa nor the first European landings in Italy was well handled. Mr Smith, a well-known American biographer and former professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, acknowledges Eisenhower’s many talents. But unlike several previous American writers (including Eisenhower’s own grandson), he does not do so by portraying British commanders as almost uniformly incompetent in comparison. Another virtue is Mr Smith’s sophisticated handling of Eisenhower’s infatuation for his beautiful Anglo-Irish driver, Kay Summersby, the subject of much prurient speculation. Mr Smith lists the circumstantial opportunities and concludes: “Whether he and Kay were intimate remains a matter of conjecture. But there is no question they were in love.” Eisenhower’s luck held good in 1945 when he told George Marshall he meant to leave Mamie, his wife of 29 years, for Summersby. Marshall stamped on the idea and Eisenhower ran for president. Mr Smith attributes the unusual bitterness of the 1952 campaign less to political partisanship than to fear: the Democrats’ fear that Senator Joe McCarthy would publicly describe their candidate, Adlai Stevenson, as homosexual and Eisenhower’s fear that his correspondence with Marshall over his proposed divorce would be leaked. Much of John Kennedy’s political magic came from the way journalists contrasted his youth and vigour with Eisenhower’s elderly bumbling, his illnesses and his golf. But political craftiness was as important for Eisenhower as his good fortune, as laid out in a 1994 biography by Fred Greenstein, a Princeton academic, entitled “The Hidden-Hand Presidency”. In fact, Kennedy played golf much better than Eisenhower did. The Eisenhower that Mr Smith portrays was not just a “military statesman”—as Britain’s General Montgomery called him—but also a very successful president. He ended the war in Korea, refused to allow America to get involved in rescuing the French in Indochina (one idea had been to drop three atom bombs there), forced Britain, France and Israel to back down over Suez and faced down China over the Quemoy-Matsu crisis. At home he sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort nine black children to school. He presided over peace and, on the whole, prosperity. Eisenhower also left two mighty endowments for the North American economy. He pushed through the visionary St Lawrence Seaway, which takes seagoing ships to Chicago. As a young officer in 1919 he had accompanied the army’s first convoy across a continent where you sometimes had to navigate roadless tracts with a compass. Thirty-six years later he sent to Congress the legislation that created the interstate highway system. A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower believed in strong government, and knew how to use it. from the print edition | Books and arts · Recommended · 5 O lucky man! Mar 22nd 2012, 16:31
Few military general can perform the balance between military and independent politics better and wiser than Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), the best American president after the second world war. He indeed relied on the intelligent brain, adding to somewhat good fortune, in his hardly-substitutable position to achieve the unpredecendented landslide military victory with highly profound thoughts of politics. His most well-known proverb is how he explains the definition of politics, “Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.”
This book’s title lets me think of a memorial, also a very good one for me when I was just a teenager. The late Harvard University’s professor Dr. Samuel P. Huntington, the most well-cultivated in the last century, honourly praised Eisenhower as the outstanding one that set an excellent example as American. In Dr. Huntington’s most prestigious writings, “The Soldier And The State”, Eisenhower was introduced to demonstrate how to exercise politics and military force at the same time. After William H. Seward began American dream, “The Oceanic Empire is the only”, with his annexing Alaska, the theory and politics of Civil-Military relations has been researched in advance as well as ensuring the United States’ constant expansion. That’s why America can be the world power second to none from the first world war until now.
Especially, the tenure of Eisenhower, along with his vice Richard Nixon from American navy, was called “Fortuna”, a good time for America. A well-designed cycle between political and non-political area exercised due to his stylish charcteristic that reflects on this sentence - “The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.” in his speech of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. He played a big role in the contemporary global politics as well as interior affairs. American culture and economy both became prevalent, gaining rapidly steady development of another period, the baby boom. Many singers ranging from blue, jazz to rock music were cultivated during his tenure.
Eisenhower had the ability to not only war in the formidable period but also manage all the class and department in military and government with moderate authorization. Besides being an outstanding administer, Eisenhower’s practicing conservation led western group to compete with the group of U.S.S.R., letting him be the strong world leader and making America a big brother of the world. The legacy of this five-star general is largely respected to study for a lesson and the practice of politics.
Recommended 2 Report Permalink 筆者十分敬重美國的政治體制，兩黨制有配合很悠久的歷史傳統，而1854年創黨的共和黨的大象風格筆者很是筆者拿來提「國家團結」及「個人自由」兩大概念的典範。二次大戰時，大部份的美國軍人是共和黨員，為國家犧牲奉獻無數，艾森豪尤其是美國二戰時盟軍最高司令及戰後北大西洋公約組織首任司令，五星上將實至名歸。他和另一位共和黨重量級1960年代保守主義代表Barry Morris Goldwater高華德為支持台灣蔣氏政權的兩大支柱，1954年12月，他的國務卿John Dulles 杜勒斯和蔣介石的代表葉公超簽署「中美共同防禦條約」，甚至在1960年訪問蔣氏政權，在今台北市忠孝東路一帶和蔣介石一起和民眾歡呼，是唯一一個任上訪問過台灣的美國總統。筆者之後在2012年投票日前一月，曾經寫過支持Mitt Romney 羅姆尼（雖然羅氏還是沒當選）及大力的支持，雖然就中國北京政府利益來說仍有些風險，寫了不只一次支持川普當上了美國現任總統。怎麼算起來都是共和黨會就美國利益為是，跟比較好說清楚，打分明層次於中美之間的糾葛。 https://youtu.be/sS3WHwRHtyg 這時拿來一本手邊有的杭丁頓博士所著：軍人與國家，由歷史實證主義，分析數百年來戰術，各軍人及政要思想如何驅動，如傑佛遜技術導向、傑克遜式民粹主義、新漢密爾頓主義等領兵問題以及制度影響公民與軍人關係。並把「宿爾德的夢」，即美國林肯總統及其後詹森總統指定的前國務卿宿爾德，在1861-1869年八年治世間，所提及「唯有海洋帝國才是美國的前途...」，他先從介入墨西哥內政，而後併購阿拉斯加和派兵介入多明尼加等中美洲國家。美國此後在積極的工業化後，歷經Mark Twain馬克吐溫所說的Gilded Age 金光閃閃的時代（1870-1900），一次大戰後，發展成第一流的強國。艾氏的軍事長才配合當時小羅斯福總統及杜魯門總統兩任，在艾氏當選後，整整近十年的"Fortuna"稱為「好時光」，所有文化到產業及軍事均快速發展，也把之前的羅斯福「新政」的債務清光，是美國本土空前絕後的清閒。爵士、嘻哈、藍調和搖滾在這個時代滲透並刺激了美國各個次文化很多。在美蘇冷戰險峻情勢內，很策略地保持美國在國際政治外交的龍頭地位，與蘇俄並駕其軀。 ＊筆者錄自微軟進階百科全書2009年版，在共和黨失去白宮連續20年後，艾森豪總統的第一次就職演說，1953年1月20日： After losing five presidential elections in a row, the Republican Party finally regained control of the executive office when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected in 1952. On January 20, 1953, Eisenhower delivered an inaugural address that repeatedly echoed his belief that all people are dependent upon one another and that each individual must work toward democratic ideals and peace. Eisenhower alluded to the looming threat of Communism and assured his listeners, both at home and abroad, that the United States would defend the free world. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s First Inaugural Address My friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads.
Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.
Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling.
May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.
My fellow citizens:
The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.
This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.
Since this century's beginning, a time of tempest has seemed to come upon the continents of the earth. Masses of Asia have awakened to strike off shackles of the past. Great nations of Europe have fought their bloodiest wars. Thrones have toppled and their vast empires have disappeared. New nations have been born.
For our own country, it has been a time of recurring trial. We have grown in power and in responsibility. We have passed through the anxieties of depression and of war to a summit unmatched in man's history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight through the forests of the Argonne, to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to the cold mountains of Korea.
In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning of these times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God's guidance. We summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit and all our will to meet the question:
How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light—a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?
Great as are the preoccupations absorbing us at home, concerned as we are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood today and our vision of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed by, and often even created by, this question that involves all humankind.
This trial comes at a moment when man's power to achieve good or to inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes and the sharpest fears of all ages. We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the plains. Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce. Disease diminishes and life lengthens.
Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create—and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.
At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith.
This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.
This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.
In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished by free people—love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country—all are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted. The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn—all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.
This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve. It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.
It is because we, all of us, hold to these principles that the political changes accomplished this day do not imply turbulence, upheaval or disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose of strengthening our dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding documents, a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of a Divine Providence.
The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use. They tutor men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth.
Here, then, is joined no argument between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure that we hold, from the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches to the creative magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond the reach of this struggle.
Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark.
The faith we hold belongs not to us alone but to the free of all the world. This common bond binds the grower of rice in Burma and the planter of wheat in Iowa, the shepherd in southern Italy and the mountaineer in the Andes. It confers a common dignity upon the French soldier who dies in Indo-China, the British soldier killed in Malaya, the American life given in Korea.
We know, beyond this, that we are linked to all free peoples not merely by a noble idea but by a simple need. No free people can for long cling to any privilege or enjoy any safety in economic solitude. For all our own material might, even we need markets in the world for the surpluses of our farms and our factories. Equally, we need for these same farms and factories vital materials and products of distant lands. This basic law of interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace, applies with thousand-fold intensity in the event of war.
So we are persuaded by necessity and by belief that the strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their danger, in discord.
To produce this unity, to meet the challenge of our time, destiny has laid upon our country the responsibility of the free world's leadership.
So it is proper that we assure our friends once again that, in the discharge of this responsibility, we Americans know and we observe the difference between world leadership and imperialism; between firmness and truculence; between a thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.
We wish our friends the world over to know this above all: we face the threat—not with dread and confusion—but with confidence and conviction.
We feel this moral strength because we know that we are not helpless prisoners of history. We are free men. We shall remain free, never to be proven guilty of the one capital offense against freedom, a lack of staunch faith.
In pleading our just cause before the bar of history and in pressing our labor for world peace, we shall be guided by certain fixed principles.
These principles are:
(1) Abhorring war as a chosen way to balk the purposes of those who threaten us, we hold it to be the first task of statesmanship to develop the strength that will deter the forces of aggression and promote the conditions of peace. For, as it must be the supreme purpose of all free men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to save humanity from preying upon itself.
In the light of this principle, we stand ready to engage with any and all others in joint effort to remove the causes of mutual fear and distrust among nations, so as to make possible drastic reduction of armaments. The sole requisites for undertaking such effort are that—in their purpose—they be aimed logically and honestly toward secure peace for all; and that—in their result—they provide methods by which every participating nation will prove good faith in carrying out its pledge.
(2) Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.
(3) Knowing that only a United States that is strong and immensely productive can help defend freedom in our world, we view our Nation's strength and security as a trust upon which rests the hope of free men everywhere. It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.
(4) Honoring the identity and the special heritage of each nation in the world, we shall never use our strength to try to impress upon another people our own cherished political and economic institutions.
(5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security and well-being. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just burdens in the common defense of freedom.
(6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military strength and the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any single people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.
(7) Appreciating that economic need, military security and political wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings of free peoples, we hope, within the framework of the United Nations, to help strengthen such special bonds the world over. The nature of these ties must vary with the different problems of different areas.
In the Western Hemisphere, we enthusiastically join with all our neighbors in the work of perfecting a community of fraternal trust and common purpose.
In Europe, we ask that enlightened and inspired leaders of the Western nations strive with renewed vigor to make the unity of their peoples a reality. Only as free Europe unitedly marshals its strength can it effectively safeguard, even with our help, its spiritual and cultural heritage.
(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.
(9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force. And in our quest for an honorable peace, we shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.
By these rules of conduct, we hope to be known to all peoples.
By their observance, an earth of peace may become not a vision but a fact.
This hope—this supreme aspiration—must rule the way we live.
We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose.
We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible—from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.
And so each citizen plays an indispensable role. The productivity of our heads, our hands, and our hearts is the source of all the strength we can command, for both the enrichment of our lives and the winning of the peace.
No person, no home, no community can be beyond the reach of this call. We are summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with compassion. For this truth must be clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.
The peace we seek, then, is nothing less than the practice and fulfillment of our whole faith among ourselves and in our dealings with others. This signifies more than the stilling of guns, easing the sorrow of war. More than escape from death, it is a way of life. More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.
This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.
Microsoft R Encarta R 2009. c 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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