DDay+80—eighty years since the Greatest Generation began the greatest offensive in all human history directed at the face of tyranny.
With three writing projects in the orbit of three different eras of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s professional life, I’ve done quite a bit of reading and research on Ike Eisenhower. The most important thing I’ve discovered in this work is how much I find Ike’s ideas and philosophies mirror my ideas and philosophies as I approach age 60.
Growing up in Kansas City, Kansas, all I ever really knew about President Eisenhower in the grand scheme of things was that he was born in Kansas. I remember bits and pieces of visiting the Eisenhower Library & Museum in Abilene, Kansas when I was about 8 or so on a family summer vacation to visit my grandparents’ house at Tuttle Creek Lake near Manhattan. My main memory is standing on a hot summer day inside the cool and quiet Place of Meditation, the final resting place of Ike and Maime. The surviving impression from that day is my gut telling me this place was somewhere special and the people buried here were something special.
After spending the last few years on a deep dive into Dwight David Eisenhower, I now can confirm those gut feelings, Ike was something special and his influence helped build the United States into the world leader the people of my generation and those to follow grew up taking for granted.
We could all benefit at this 2024 moment in the United States from the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower. There are many historical parallels to the decade leading up to World War II that are increasingly impossible to ignore. As Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
In remembrance of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, here is the letter General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, sent his troops before the commencement of the D-Day attack on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 2024.
May God bless all the brave soldiers and their families for their bravery and sacrifice in standing up to Nazi evil.
General Eisenhower’s letter to the troops before the D-Day invasion, June 1944.
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brother-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed people of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-1941. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their war strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
