John Eisenhower – författare

It was the greatest single battle the U.S. Army ever fought. More than a million GIs were involved and nearly 80,000 became casualties. The Allied generals had to rally beaten, dispirited troops in the face of an attack they had never dreamed possible.A study in command, from generals to squad leaders, The Bitter Woods follows von Runstedt, Dietrich, and of course Hitler, as closely as the Americans. As son of the supreme commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, a West Point graduate, a retired Army brigadier general, and a military historian, John Eisenhower is uniquely qualified to tell how the Allied generals (nearly all of whom he knew personally) met Hitler's challenge how the two armies fought fiercely in the Ardennes from December 1944 to January 1945 and how the Allied victory broke the back of Nazi aggression.

Fought far from home, World War I was nonetheless a stirring American adventure. The achievements of the United States during that war, often underrated by military historians, were in fact remarkable, and they turned the tide of the conflict. So says John S. D. Eisenhower, one of today''s most acclaimed military historians, in his sweeping history of the Great War and the men who won it: the Yanks of the American Expeditionary Force. Their men dying in droves on the stalemated Western Front, British and French generals complained that America was giving too little, too late. John Eisenhower shows why they were wrong. The European Allies wished to plug the much-needed U.S. troops into their armies in order to fill the gaps in the line. But General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, the indomitable commander of the AEF, determined that its troops would fight together, as a whole, in a truly American army. Only this force, he argued -- not bolstered French or British units -- could convince Germany that it was hopeless to fight on. Pershing''s often-criticized decision led to the beginning of the end of World War I -- and the beginning of the U.S. Army as it is known today. The United States started the war with 200,000 troops, including the National Guard as well as regulars. They were men principally trained to fight Indians and Mexicans. Just nineteen months later the Army had mobilized, trained, and equipped four million men and shipped two million of them to France. It was the greatest mobilization of military forces the New World had yet seen. For the men it was a baptism of fire. Throughout Yanks Eisenhower focuses on the small but expert cadre of officers who directed our effort: not only Pershing, but also the men who would win their lasting fame in a later war -- MacArthur, Patton, and Marshall. But the author has mined diaries, memoirs, and after-action reports to resurrect as well the doughboys in the trenches, the unknown soldiers who made every advance possible and suffered most for every defeat. He brings vividly to life those men who achieved prominence as the AEF and its allies drove the Germans back into their homeland -- the irreverent diarist Maury Maverick, Charles W. Whittlesey and his famous "lost battalion," the colorful Colonel Ulysses Grant McAlexander, and Sergeant Alvin C. York, who became an instant celebrity by singlehandedly taking 132 Germans as prisoners. From outposts in dusty, inglorious American backwaters to the final bloody drive across Europe, Yanks illuminates America''s Great War as though for the first time. In the AEF, General John J. Pershing created the Army that would make ours the American age; in Yanks that Army has at last found a storyteller worthy of its deeds.

Pulling readers down into the trenches with his intimate battlefield knowledge, John S.D Eisenhower, a retired brigadier general, delivers the complete story of the United States' role in World War I, from the fortunate selection of John 'Black Jack' Pershing as commanding general, to the astonishingly rapid buildup of troops, to America's decisive intervention. While the bulk of recent Great War accounts approach the conflict from British and French perspectives, YANKS focuses entirely on the often misrepresented story of the American Expeditionary Force which, in an incredible span of just 18 months, grew from an under-equipped band of 120,000 troops into a dominant force of four million. Eisenhower has mined little-known diaries and memoirs to illuminate an extrordinary cast of war heroes, both famous and unsung. With chapters focusing on legends like Pershing, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and Sergeant Alvin York, as well as the brave Privates (nicknamed doughboys) who fought on the front lines, this riveting work captures the birth of the modern Army, reasserting the true contributions of America in World War I.

John S.D. Eisenhower modestly explains General Ike as “a son''s view of a great military leader—highly intelligent, strong, forceful, kind, yet as human as the rest of us.” It is that, and more: a portrait of the greatest Allied military leader of the Second World War, by the man who knew Ike best.General Ike is a book that John Eisenhower always knew he had to write, a tribute from an affectionate and admiring son to a great father. John chose to write about the “military Ike,” as opposed to the “political Ike,” because Ike cared far more about his career in uniform than about his time in the White House. A series of portraits of Ike’s relations with soldiers and statesmen, from MacArthur to Patton to Montgomery to Churchill to de Gaulle, reveals the many facets of a talented, driven, headstrong, yet diplomatic leader. Taken together, they reveal a man who was brilliant, if flawed; naïve at times in dealing with the public, yet who never lost his head when others around him were losing theirs. Above all, General Ike was a man who never let up in the relentless pursuit of the destruction of Hitler. Here for the first time are eyewitness stories of General Patton showing off during military exercises; of Ike on the verge of departing for Europe and assuming command of the Eastern Theater; of Churchill stewing and lobbying Ike in his “off hours.” Faced with giant personalities such as these men and MacArthur, not to mention difficult allies such as de Gaulle and Montgomery, Ike nevertheless managed to pull together history''s greatest invasion force and to face down a determined enemy from Normandy to the Bulge and beyond. John Eisenhower masterfully uses the backdrop of Ike''s key battles to paint a portrait of his father and his relationships with the great men of his time. General Ike is a ringing and inspiring testament to a great man by an accomplished historian. It is also a personal portrait of a caring, if not always available, father by his admiring son. It is history at its best.

Dwight D. Eisenhower had two careers: before he was one of America's most popular presidents, he was its greatest military commander. His military career lasted much longer, and (according to John) it was far more important to him personally. Nobody is in a better position to tell the story of General Ike than John, who was by his side for much of it, and who rose to the rank of Brigadier General before retiring to write seminal and bestselling works of military history. GENERAL IKE is a definitive, revealing, and brilliantly crafted study of the right stuff of leadership. Great leaders bring out the best in the people around them, and Ike was no exception. Drawing on scenes witnessed by few others, and comments given him in private by his father, John Eisenhower shows how his father's keen mind, great sense of the strengths of others, and perseverance in the face of all duties combined to bring America to victory.