My parents were big fans of President Eisenhower. When I was a kid in the 1960’s, they often spoke longingly of the previous decade when “our country had real leadership.” Despite their admiration for Eisenhower, I had never taken the time to really study his life.

So when I saw that Jean Edward Smith had published Eisenhower in War and Peace, I just had to read it. This is a comprehensive book that gives us a fresh look at one of the great American leaders of the 20th Century. Then first third of the book traces Ike’s childhood and rise in the military. The middle third covers his role as Supreme Commander during World War II. And the end covers his time as President of the United States.

The book is fair because it doesn’t avoid Eisenhower’s failings (including some early military mistakes, and the coup in Iran that has come back to haunt the USA). But you finish the book in awe of the great man. It amazes me that he does not receive a lot of attention anymore, yet he saved free democracies from fascism, got America to fully engage in the world when the majority simply wanted to be isolationists, used a deft hand to undermine the red baiting of the early 1950’s, balanced the budget, built the national freeway system, kept America in the lead during the Cold War, simplified the tax code … the list goes on and on.

Of all the things I learned about Ike from this book, perhaps the most interesting was his willingness to stand up to his own constituency. It took a leader like Ike to tell the military that dropping another atomic bomb was not the right decision. It took a leader like Ike to coin the phrase “military industrial complex.” It took a leader like Ike, as conservative and anti-communist as one could be, to undermine the antics of Senator McCarthy. He was the right man for the job during all of this.

I like Ike. So will you after you read this book.