EISENHOWER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 12 June 1945, Page 4

EISENHOWER

TWO signal tributes paid to General Eisenhower within a short time of each other both lay stress on his outstanding quality as a fusionist of diverse elements. Toasting the General at a luncheon having decorated him with the Russian Order of Victory, Marshal Zhukov, one of the illustrious military figures of this war, described Eisenhower as “a man with the heart of a soldier and the mind of a diplomat” who had beei\ able to organise many different nationalities under his command and lead them to victory. Lord Moran, Mr Churchill’s doctor, speaking of the very deep friendship between the Prime Minister and President Roosevelt, added that General Eisenhower would be regarded by history as one of the main bridges between England and America.

There we have a testimony to a combination of precious qualities not often found in a soldier. Eisenhower’s leadership has been put to severe tests and it has come through with flying colours, not because he is a showy or magnetic figure, but because he genuinely believes in team -work and set the example in it by becoming the unifying personality at the top. That simple fact, so difficult to put into practice, chiefly accounts for the great Allied armies getting on so well together and, in the military sphere, really put the “united” into United Nations.

There is no snobbery or false palaver about Dwight Eisenhower. He had most of that knocked out of him in boyhood when “ugly Ike” and his four brothers met the test of poor circumstances by buying their clothes and paying their school fees through doing chores and odd jobs in the of Adelene. Passing into West Point young “Ike” made every post a winning post and those who know him best say he succeeded in those days by sheer grit and brain power. When his name first came to world.notice as leader of the North African combined operation many wondered what qualifications for the job this paper general had. Before he had finished with Italy and Germany they knew, but it was a stroke of genius among those who selected him for the command and Churchill had a hand in this.

The war has had more brilliant field generals than Eisenhower, though his influence on Anglo-Amer-ican strategy must not be underestimated; no man among all the millions who fought in Europe has proved himself a greater co-operative leader in the modern manner. And yet it is characteristic of Eisenhower’s bluntness and innate honesty that he can say he would gladly have traded everything in the way of opportunity this war has brought him if that could have avoided the misery and sufferings which have come to so many people. London is about to honour this fine soldier from America.