Eisenhower gives us the whole man, bringing together a huge amount of material that has become available over the two decades. Eisenhower's popularity is strong and seems to be growing. (Only a few years ago, the Library of Congress catalogued eleven new books on Eisenhower -- from his heart attack to his wartime relationship with Montgomery).What is the truth about Ike's part in the starving of tens of thousands of German POW's at the end of the war? And did he deliberately allow the Soviets to win the space race an put a satellite in orbit -- which thereby allowed us to do the same with impunity? Did he really have an affair with Kay Summersby, his wartime driver? Did Columbia University trustees appoint him by accident? In Eisenhower, Perret addresses these questions and more.
Far from being the shallow, bland, easy-going and pliant figure portrayed in books such as Trumbull Higgins' The Perfect Failure, Eisenhower was a complex, tough-minded, highly capable man who rose to the top in the world's most competitive profession, the modern military. In fact, the modern presidency is, to a large degree, Eisenhower's creation.
Geoffrey Perret has not only written extensively on the military history of the United States, but his biography of MacArthur and his recent biography of Ulysses Grant have shown him to be an insightful and consummate biographer.
