Channels, Fall 2020

Page 58 Caldwell • Eisenhower The last first-person primary source to be evaluated when examining Eisenhower as President are his memoirs of the White House years. There are two volumes, split between his two terms. They essentially contain the story of his administration as told by the 34th President himself and are a valuable resource for any historian or scholar wishing to learn more about the Eisenhower era. Eisenhower relates what his life was like from the time he announced his candidacy to the moment John F. Kennedy was inaugurated. His account is helpful, though undeniably personally biased, but the most striking section is found at the end of the second volume. It is titled “Afterthoughts,” and it is composed of Eisenhower’s thoughts after finishi ng the “factual recital of [his] eight years in the Presidency.” 65 He reflects on the lessons he learned, the situations he would have handled differently in hindsight, the decisions he made that he was proud of, and of how the political context was changing and would continue to change. His ending thought, however, was of the pride and gratefulness he had for “the privilege of having had a role in the revolutionary changes that have come about during these last two decades… to the benefit of mankind.” 66 Throughout his account, he emphasizes how glad he was to have the chance to serve his country. While his accounting of his actions and administration may not be perfectly neutral, the desire he has for his country’s best is genuinely proven over and over agai n. It speaks in an honest way of his values as President and rebuts the critique that he was an unengaged and lackadaisical leader. Aside from the primary sources that were authored by Eisenhower himself, historians can look to the testimonies of his military colleagues and political subordinates to verify the kind of leader he was. One of the most fascinating personal accounts about what it was like to serve under Eisenhower in the military was published by Captain Harry C. Butcher, a naval aide to General Eisenhower from 1942 to 1945. My Three Years with Eisenhower, the publication of Bucher’s personal diary, recounts “daily entries about the war lives of [Ike and Harry] both.” 67 The diary goes into great detail about the day-to-day happenings in the last three years of the war, portraying Eisenhower to be a caring and responsive leader. Butcher never holds him in anything other than the highest position of respect; even the introduction serves to project how fondly Butcher looks back on his time of service under “General Ike.” 68 In terms of testimonies from those who worked with Eisenhower while he was President, two essential figures that need to be considered are John Foster Dulles and Sherman Adams. Both served the President in essential roles and are compelling witnesses to his actions. Dulles and Adams both held a great deal of responsibility within the Eisenhower administration, and both were sometimes pointed to by critics as the real movers and 65 Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961 (New York: Doubleday, 1965), 621. 66 Ibid, 658. 67 Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower: The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR, Naval Aide to General Eisenhower, 1942 to 1945 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946), xi. 68 Ibid, 800.