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Henry Davenport, and William Pairman, Great Generals:
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Eisenhower, Dwight David (1890–1969)
American general, president of the United States
Eisenhower is one of two men (Ulysses S. grant is the
other) to command American armies and then be elected
to two terms as president of the United States. Like
Grant, Eisenhower came from common stock. Born in
Denison, Texas, on 14 October 1890, he was an infant
when his parents moved to Abilene, Kansas; he was later
hailed as “the man from Abilene.” He graduated from
high school and then sought to enter the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point as well as the naval academy at
Annapolis, Maryland. He was initially accepted to An-
napolis, but his age prevented him from attending, so in
1911 he went to West Point, from which he graduated
four years later in the same class as fellow Second World
War commander Omar bradley. Assigned the rank of
lieutenant, Eisenhower was sent to Camp Sam Hous-
ton, Texas, and served during the First World War with
the 19th Infantry. He later moved to Fort Oglethorpe in
Georgia. When the war ended, Eisenhower was trans-
ferred to Camp Meade, Maryland, eventually moving
on to several other military encampments such as Fort
Dix in New Jersey. In 1920, he was promoted twice, to
captain and then to major.
During the 1920s, Eisenhower served in the Pan-
ama Canal Zone and graduated first in his class from
the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leav-
enworth (1926). As a member of the American Battle
Monuments Commission, he wrote the definitive guide-
book on battlefields from the First World War. He grad-
uated from the Army War College, Washington, D.C.,
in 1928, then served on the staff of Assistant Secretary of
War General George V. Moseley. From 1932 until 1935,
he was the chief military aide to Army Chief of Staff
General Douglas macarthur, and he was promoted
to lieutenant colonel in 1936.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
on 7 December 1941, bringing America into the Second
World War, Eisenhower was serving as the chief of staff
to General Walter Kreuger, commander of the Third
Army at Fort Sam Houston. He was called to Washing-
ton by General George C. Marshall to help to design
the American war blueprint, and in May 1942 he was
sent on a special mission to London, England, to coor-
dinate cooperation among the Allied forces fighting the
Germans and the Japanese. The following month he was
designated the commanding officer of American forces
in the European Theatre of Operations. In November
1942, he was also named commander in chief of Allied
forces in North Africa. Historian Brian Bader writes: “In
July 1942 Eisenhower became a lieutenant general and
was chosen to head the first major Allied military effort,
Operation ‘Torch’—the invasion of North Africa. The
Allies landed in North Africa in November 1942 and in
May 1943 completed the conquest of Tunisia. Through-
out the campaign, Eisenhower demonstrated his mastery
of coalition warfare, directing and coordinating the ef-
forts of U.S., British, and Free French land, sea, and air
forces to drive the Axis powers from North Africa. Pro-
moted to full general in February 1943, he commanded
Allied forces in the invasion of Sicily in July-August and
the invasion of mainland Italy in September.”
As the commander in chief of Allied coalition
forces, Eisenhower served as the commanding officer of
British generals Bernard Law montgomery and Har-
old Rupert alexander, later the first earl Alexander of
Tunisia. Although he is widely credited with helping to
defeat German forces in North Africa, he did suffer a
defeat at the Kasserine Pass (February 1943) at the hands
of the German general Erwin rommel.
In December 1943, Eisenhower was transferred
from the command of the Mediterranean Theatre and
given command of the Supreme Headquarters of the
Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), which was being
readied to invade Europe. This invasion, called Opera-
tion Overlord, took place on 6 June 1944, when, in a
massive, multipart effort, American, British, and Cana-
dian soldiers assaulted several beaches in the Normandy
section of northern France and gained a foothold on the
European continent by battling back entrenched Ger-
man forces. As commander in chief, Eisenhower waseiSenhoweR, Dwight DAviD 0