The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys : The Men of World War II by Stephen Ambrose Read Free Book Online

subject he had studied for decades. It was not an art in his view, but a skill to be learned. “The one quality that can be developed by studious reflection and practice is the leadership of men,” he wrote his son John at West Point. Here was his chance to show that he had developed it.  In the event, he not only exercised it, but learned new lessons. It was “during those anxious hours” in Gibraltar, he later wrote in a draft introduction to his memoirs that he finally decided to discard, “that I first realized how inexorably and inescapably strain and tension wear away at the leader’s endurance, his judgment and his confidence. The pressure becomes more acute because of the duty of a staff constantly to present to the commander the worst side of an eventuality.” In this situation, Eisenhower realized, the commander had to “preserve optimism in himself and in his command. Without confidence, enthusiasm and optimism in the command, victory is scarcely obtainable.” Eisenhower also realized that “optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He saw two additional advantages to a cheerful and hopeful attitude by the commander:
    First, the “habit tends to minimize potentialities within the individual himself to become demoralized.” Second, it “has a most extraordinary effect upon all with whom he comes in contact. With this clear realization, I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory-that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow. I adopted a policy of circulating through the whole force to the full limit imposed by physical considerations. I did my best to meet everyone from general to private with a smile, a pat on the back and a definite interest in his problems.”
    He did his best, from that moment to the end of his life, to conceal with a big grin the ache in his bones and the exhaustion in his mind.  There was a great deal more that went into Eisenhower’s success as a leader of men, of course. As he put it on another occasion, the art of leadership is making the right decisions, then getting men towant to carry them out. But the words he wrote about his learning experience on the Rock, words that he was too modest to put into the published version of his memoirs, are a classic expression of one of the most critical aspects of leadership, perfectly said by a man who knew more about the subject than almost anyone else.  On November 8, American troops went ashore in Morocco and Algeria, while British troops landed near Oran. The initial opposition, consisting of French colonial troops, was light, but as the Allies moved east into Tunisia, they ran up against German troops rushed in from Italy. Resistance stiffened. Further, the winter rains turned the roads into quagmires. The first great Allied offensive of World War II came to a dispiriting halt.
    Eisenhower, who had serious political problems to deal with in his relations with the French, paid too little attention to what was happening at the front.  He delegated his command to Gen. Lloyd Fredendall, an officer who had come highly recommended by Marshall. But in the event, Fredendall proved incapable of meeting the test of combat. Despite his serious and well-placed misgivings, Eisenhower allowed Fredendall to stay in command, merely giving him an occasional pep talk.
    Rommel, meanwhile, having been driven out of Egypt and across Libya by General Montgomery’s Eighth Army, in the offensive that had begun in November at El Alamein, arrived in Tunisia. He decided to counterattack the Americans. His object was to divide the American and British forces in Tunisia, and even more to inflict a stinging defeat on the Americans in their first encounter with the German army. Rommel’s aim was to give the Americans an inferiority complex. On February 14 he began the