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Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969
With a talent for military strategy and the ability to work effectively with personalities of all types, General Dwight D. Eisenhower proved uniquely suited for the role of supreme allied commander during World War II. A career army officer, Eisenhower began his wartime service in 1941 as head of the War Plans Division under General George C. Marshall. He was assigned to lead U. S. forces in Britain in the spring of 1942, and later commanded the Allied forces' invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy (1942–43). Named supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force by President Franklin Roosevelt in December 1943, Eisenhower masterminded the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, and directed Allied operations in Europe until the surrender of Germany in May 1945. Enormously popular with the American public after the war, Eisenhower was elected to the presidency in 1952 and served two terms.
Thomas E. Stephens, 1955 |