1/8: The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower by Michel Paradis (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Light-Battle-Eisenhower-American-Superpower/dp/0358682371/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
On June 6, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower addressed the thousands of American troops preparing to invade Normandy, exhorting them to embrace the “Great Crusade” they faced. Then, in a fleeting moment alone, he drafted a resignation letter in case the invasion failed.
In The Light of Battle, Michel Paradis, acclaimed author of Last Mission to Tokyo, paints a vivid portrait of Dwight Eisenhower as he learns to navigate the crosscurrents of diplomacy, politics, strategy, family, and fame with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance. In a world of giants—Churchill, Roosevelt, De Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur—it was a barefoot boy from Abilene, Kansas, who would master the art of power and become a modern-day George Washington.
Drawing upon meticulous research and a voluminous body of newly discovered records, letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts from three continents, Paradis brings Eisenhower to life, as a complicated man who craved simplicity, a genial cipher whose smile was a lethal political weapon.
With a page-turning pace and an eye for the overlooked, Paradis interweaves the grand arc of history with more human concerns, bringing readers into the private moments that led to Eisenhower’s most pivotal decisions. By deftly integrating the personal and the political, he reveals how Eisenhower’s rise both reflected and was integral to America’s rise as a global superpower.
An unflinching look at how character is forged, and leadership is learned, The Light of Battle breathes new life into the man who made “the leader of the free world” the mantle of the American presidency.
1944 Normandy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is, I in the world, I'm John Bachelor. |
| 0:03.4 | The Light of Battle, Eisenhower, D-Day, and the birth of the American superpower. |
| 0:09.1 | I welcome and congratulate the author Michelle Peridine, because this takes us to a part of the |
| 0:15.3 | 20th century that we're still living the ability of the US to combine with the British Empire and the Soviet Union to defeat the |
| 0:26.4 | Hitlerides and remake the map of Europe one more time. We go to this story, however, not in Europe, but in Washington, D.C. it is January |
| 0:36.8 | 1944. A man named Eisenhower is present at the table at the Alibi Club, 1806 Street, northwest Washington. |
| 0:46.5 | A very exclusive club, only 50 members at one time. George Marshall is a member. |
| 0:51.3 | George Marshall has ordered, requested, urged, suggested that Dwight Eisenhower, |
| 0:57.0 | a general who has been successful in North Africa but a man who also thought he was going to be sideline for the big show, |
| 1:04.8 | the second front. |
| 1:06.3 | He has ordered Eisenhower to come home for rest for 10 days and also to meet the |
| 1:12.4 | politico's of Washington because Eisenhower is going to |
| 1:17.6 | carry the burden of the rest of the war in Europe and that requires money and attention and political success. |
| 1:25.0 | Michelle, a very good evening to you. |
| 1:28.0 | Congratulations, why is George Marshall requesting Eisenhower? What can Eisenhower do for and what can he do for |
| 1:35.8 | Eisenhower at this moment? Good evening to you. Good evening. A real pleasure to be on and very much looking forward to talking about it. |
| 1:45.5 | Yeah, George Marshall is, you know, obviously one of the lions of the 20th century. |
| 1:51.1 | You know, some would say that he was even more powerful certainly in |
| 1:54.8 | matters of war and peace than even FDR. There was a joke and it was only kind of a |
| 1:59.8 | joke that when Marshall would go to Capitol Hill asking for funding for a new military program, |
| 2:07.0 | they would ask if this is what he wanted or is what is it what Roosevelt wanted? |
| 2:12.0 | And if he said it was what Roosevelt wanted he could |
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