Welcome Remarks for How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions
October 14, 2020
Greetings from the National Archives. I’m David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to this virtual book talk on How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions, with author Susan Eisenhower and special guest Michael Beschloss.
Before we hear from our speakers, I want to tell you about two upcoming online programs that you can view on the National Archives YouTube channel.
On Wednesday, October 21, at noon, Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith will join author Michel Paradis to discuss Paradis’s book, Last Mission to Tokyo: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raiders and Their Final Fight.
And on Thursday, October 22, at 1 p.m., we will present a panel discussion on the “100th Anniversary of Women Winning the Vote: Reflections on the 2020 Centennial.” Panelists will include former Senator from Maryland Barbara Mikulski; Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation; Colleen Shogan, senior vice president of the White House Historical Association; and Susan Combs, former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior. This program is presented in partnership with the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission and the 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative.
I hope you will join us for these programs.
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Few people have made decisions as momentous as Dwight D. Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles. He sought national unity by pursuing a course he called the "Middle Way," promoting a centrist line between concentrations of unbridled private power on one side of the road and unlimited state power on the other.
The National Archives is proud to be the keeper of Dwight Eisenhower’s Presidential papers at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. Thousands come to the library each year to research the records of his life and career and learn about Ike in the museum.
Susan Eisenhower's How Ike Led shows us not just what a great American did, but why―and what we can learn from him today.
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Susan Eisenhower is the CEO and Chairman of The Eisenhower Group, Inc., a Washington, DC–based consulting company founded in 1986. For more than 25 years, the company has provided strategic counsel on business development, public affairs, and communications projects. In addition to her work through EGI, she has also had a distinguished career as a policy analyst. She is Chairman Emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College, where she served as president twice. Eisenhower has authored hundreds of newspaper op-eds, appeared frequently on national television and radio, and her articles have appeared in such journals as the National Academy of Sciences’ Issues in Science and Technology and the Naval Institutes’ Proceedings. She has written four books and co-authored or co-edited four other books on international security issues.
Joining Susan Eisenhower in conversation about her grandfather will be Presidential historian, Michael Beschloss. Michael is an award-winning historian, bestselling author, and Emmy winner. His newest book is Presidents of War, which tells the story of the American Presidents who have waged our major wars. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Archives Foundation, a trustee of the White House Historical Association, and former trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Now let’s hear from Susan Eisenhower and Michael Beschloss. Thank you for joining us today.