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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Dwight Eisenhower Vision


Ike's vision now key to US military thinking

ABILENE, Kan. – When Dwight Eisenhower planned the World War II invasion that wrested Europe from Hitler's hands, he believed — as many strategists do today — that victory and a lasting peace required more than military might.

Sixty-five years after D-Day, Eisenhower's thinking underpins military doctrine of the U.S. and its allies facing new conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"He had seen the slaughter of World War II and took personally the death of every Allied soldier," said Jim Leyerzapf, staff archivist at Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, which holds a vast record of Eisenhower's thinking both during and after the war. "He had to honor the sacrifices of those who died by doing all he could to keep America engaged in the world."

The modern doctrine of using more than military strength to stabilize fragile nations like Iraq and Afghanistan — relying on economic aid, diplomacy and information as well — has roots in a long forgotten speech Eisenhower gave in July 1951 at a dinner in London.

With American support, Eisenhower said, Europe could unify its economies and governments behind common goals, providing no fertile soil for communism to take hold and create instability.

"The hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength and strength alone!" Eisenhower asserted. A copy of the text, with editing marks, is in the library's archives.

When he led the troops during World War II, Eisenhower projected confidence, believing that exuding optimism was as important as the planning he did for battle, papers in his library show.

But privately, Eisenhower worried about the Normandy invasion's success, consuming coffee and cigarettes, but getting little sleep, as he planned the operations.

He even scribbled a note on a slip of paper the night of June 5 as troops began crossing the English Channel, taking full responsibility in the event of failure. He ordered it destroyed, but the note survives at his museum.

Leading up to the invasion, Eisenhower had to work at convincing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the operation would succeed, going so far as to promise to be in Germany by Christmas.

"He said his mother told him 'God deals the cards, but you play them,'" Leyerzapf said.

D-Day opened a second front in Europe, which Eisenhower hoped would force Germany's surrender by the end of 1944. He wasn't far off the mark: The actual surrender came in May 1945.

Eisenhower was aware that the battle and the ensuing peace would restore the nations that had been under Nazi control and lead to a divided Germany, papers in the library show.

After the war, he became Army chief of staff, then commander of NATO, the new alliance formed to protect Europe from future conflict and Soviet aggression.

Allan Millett, director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, said that as president from 1953-61, Eisenhower understood what would be the cost of another major conflict in Europe.

Eisenhower said the price of military success could never be fully measured.

"But I do know this," he said in June 1954 meeting with news correspondents, according to a transcript. "That out of it all, the people who know war, those that experienced it — you writers, the fighting men — I believe we are the most earnest advocates of peace in the world."

He continued: "I believe these people who talk about peace academically but who never had to dive in a ditch when a Messerschmitt 109 came over, they really don't know what it is."

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On the Net:

Eisenhower Center: http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov

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Thursday, June 04, 2009

WWII Love Remembered - D-Day Anniversary

Saturday June 6 is the 65th anniversay of D-Day 1944 during WWII.
Features, links, and an introduction to the history of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of occupied Europe that began on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
www.worldwar2history.info/D-Day -

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Thursday, Jun 04 2009

On the eve of the D-Day anniversary, the achingly poignant story of the love a Nazi sniper's bullet could not kill

By Frances Hardy
Last updated at 8:25 AM on 04th June 2009

They met at the rollerskating rink in Swindon, a social hub for wartime teenagers where the more accomplished could dance on their skates.

The young American soldier strode up to Monica Tovey and said: 'Hi honey. May I take you on the skating floor for a waltz?'

'He was tall, charming and wellspoken,' she recalls. 'We'd heard the accent on films, of course, but for all we knew of America then, he could have come from the moon.'

Wartime romance: Monica Tovey was just 16 when she became engaged to paratrooper Martin Collins

Monica accepted the invitation - and began a sweetly innocent love affair that would end in tragedy, but bring her golden memories for the rest of her life.

On Saturday, Monica Tovey will place a posy of bright flowers in a hedge that skirts a Wiltshire field as she has done on the anniversary of D-Day for the past 65 years.

She will say a silent prayer for the first man she ever loved, who died in action on that day. And in this small, private act of remembrance she will replicate the sorrow and pride of countless others bereaved in the Second World War.

To read the rest of this remarkable love story, still strong after 65 years, click on:

WWII Love Remembered

video-normandy-june6,1944

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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

We'll Be Friends Till the End But It Might Be The End, My Friend.

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Text reprinted below cartoon.

swine flu
As the two friends wandered through the snow on their way home, Piglet grinned to himself, thinking how lucky he was to have a best friend like Pooh.

Pooh thought to himself, "If the pig sneezes, he's fucken dead!"

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Swine Flu Spreads:
According to U.S. health officials, swine flu cases have now been reported in all 50 states. As of June 1, 10,053 people were infected with the illness; 17 people have died from it. Click here to learn more about the virus from the CDC Website.

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