5/8: 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
🗓️ 14 September 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
1944 OVERLORD
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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is on the |
| 0:02.0 | is CBS I on the World with John Bachelor. |
| 0:06.0 | Here's John Bachelor. |
| 0:08.0 | Continuing with Michelle Parady, the author of the new book The Light of Battle, |
| 0:14.4 | Eisenhower D-Day, and the birth of the American superpower. |
| 0:18.4 | Dwight Eisenhower is named the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. The original thinking was the |
| 0:24.8 | second front will open May 1st. It is now the middle of March, 1944. Eisenhower has |
| 0:31.4 | moved the headquarters from Central London where he felt jammed in and always |
| 0:36.6 | being called upon by various dignitaries, no time to think, to a place called Wide Wing, which Michelle tells me is as ugly as the Pentagon but it's |
| 0:46.1 | outside of London and therefore the only people who come out to him he can either stop or |
| 0:52.0 | really want to talk to him he can either stop or really want to talk to him. At the same time it allows |
| 0:56.2 | him to relax on horseback. He's always ridden horses since Kansas and Michelle gives |
| 1:02.0 | us as he always does a wonderful scene with my heroin, Kaye Summersby, the driver on an Arabian in the forests around Wide Wing to relax in the in the days they're planning. |
| 1:16.7 | But we're going to go to C4 Room 8 in Wide Wing. |
| 1:22.3 | The commanders and chiefs of D. Day are gathering again and |
| 1:26.7 | this time we Michelle has told you about their argument over Anvil and and. Remember Italy at this point is a grind for the British and the |
| 1:39.2 | Americans. Rome won't fall until June 6th. They've been bogged down in Monte Cassino in the mud. |
| 1:46.0 | It's a very big frustrating time and Churchill is obsessed with it because of Vansi, |
| 1:52.2 | eventually because Vansio is a lot of tension |
| 1:55.2 | between the staffs, but nothing like the airplane. |
| 1:59.1 | Michelle, I come to you, I had no idea it was this bad. All right, there's point blank, and then |
| 2:06.8 | there eventually is transportation. What is the argument about the air? |
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