Ike's Flaws (#252)
This year, I am doing a series on leaders and leadership in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in World War II. This is fifth in the series. Check out the blog to see them all or go to the links for each Eisenhower article at the bottom of this article.
Eisenhower’s Flaws
Over the last year, I’ve put together a half dozen blog posts on great things that you can take from General Dwight Eisenhower’s leadership and use as a leader today. From building a team, to making decisions, to leading with optimism, and to conducting better visits, Ike has a lot of leadership qualities to admire. And there are more positive blog posts on Eisenhower to come. I like to give you the full picture of Ike, however — General Eisenhower had three significant flaws: his decision making style, his health, and his relationship with Kay Summersby.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, known as “Ike” to his friends, was one of the great people of the 20th century. Born in Texas in 1890 to pacifist parents and raised in Kansas, he attended West Point where he played football. As an infantry officer in the Army, Ike, as he was known to his friends, was an excellent planner and staff officer, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Fox Conner, and Douglas MacArthur. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington where he developed the war plans for the United States Army in World War II. He did such a good job as a planner he was selected to command the Allied Forces during the amphibious assault in North Africa in November 1942, the amphibious assault of Sicily on July 9, 1943, and the amphibious assault of the Italian mainland on September 3, 1943. Due to his experience conducting joint operations, his ability to maintain the Allied coalition, his team building skills, and his relationship with both President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he was selected as the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces to lead the Overlord Operation on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Shortcomings of Ike’s Decision Making Style
As the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, General Eisenhower’s detractors describe him as a mere “chairman of the Allied corporate board” who kept the team together, but never employed decisive leadership to focus the team’s efforts. Throughout his life, Eisenhower preferred compromise and consensus to control. We saw in Ike and Team Building, Eisenhower using a democratic leadership style to make the decision to execute the D-Day invasion. In some ways this could be seen as a leader getting buy-in from his direct reports. Others could see it as a leader unwilling to make the tough decisions alone.
Eisenhower also was plagued by maddening bouts of indecision. He proved most decisive when the decision was to do nothing! A psychologist might see him as a people pleaser — he avoided personal conflict and tried to keep everyone happy. Finally, he could be manipulated by his strong-willed subordinates like General Bernard Montgomery and General George S. Patton (blog posts on Patton will occur this summer/fall).
Health
During World War II, Dwight Eisenhower was a 51 to 55 year old man. He was 5’10” and weighed about 172 pounds. An old football knee injury kept him from running. He liked a good steak and to drink scotch and/or whiskey — typically two at night. To unwind, he played bridge very competitively, golfed, fished, and hunted.
In addition to his recreational activities, he chugged coffee, chain-smoked Camel unfiltered cigarettes, and paced to deal with the pressure of being the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. Most days, he would drink 15 cups of coffee and smoke 3-4 packs (20 cigarettes per pack). These habits led to high blood pressure, migraines, and insomnia.
Eventually in 1949, Eisenhower quit smoking cold turkey. However, the decades of smoking eventually led to a heart attack in 1955, while he was President of the United States.
Although Eisenhower led millions of men and women in combat, his coffee and chain-smoking habits are not ones to emulate.
Kay Summersby
Dwight Eisenhower married Mamie Doud in 1916. They had two sons: Doud Dwight in 1917 (who died as a child in 1921) and John Eisenhower (1922-2013). The Eisenhowers had a social reputation in Army circles — as they moved 33 times their house usually picked up the nickname “Club Eisenhower.” Their marriage, like all marriages wasn’t perfect — Ike and Mamie were often both physically and emotionally distant from one another. Mamie experienced bouts of depression throughout her time as an army wife.
Another woman entered the picture during World War II. Kay Summersby was an Irish divorcee and former fashion model for the House of Worth in Paris. She joined Mechanized Transport Corps (MTC) as a driver to support the British war effort in 1939. During the London Blitz (the German bombing campaign) in 1940 and 1941, Kay drove blacked out ambulances throughout the city. Summersby transitioned to chauffeuring American general officers around London in 1942.
By happenstance, Kay (then 34 years old) was assigned to drive then-Major General Dwight Eisenhower in London in May 1942. When Ike returned to London in late June, Summersby was assigned as his driver and secretary in North Africa, Sicily/Italy, the United Kingdom, and then the European continent until November 1945. In this role, Ike brought Kay everywhere — she sat in on top-secret meetings; went to 10 Downing Street and had lunch with Prime Minister Winston Churchill; and dined with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and key presidential advisers such as Averell Harriman, Harry Hopkins and Bernard Baruch. Also, she hosted parties at Ike’s quarters, accompanied Eisenhower to combat areas, and shared GI rations and “liberated champagne” with General Omar Bradley and George S. Patton. In her memoir, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair With Dwight D. Eisenhower, published after Ike’s death, Kay wrote of holding hands, sitting before the fire in his quarters listening to favorite records while sharing cocktails for two, being “almost telepathic” bridge partners, golfing together, riding horses in the countryside, dancing, and playing with “Telek,” the coal-black Scotch terrier he bought for her.
After the war Eisenhower and Summersby never saw each other again. Kay became a U.S. citizen and settled in the United States, but never found happiness.
There is much speculation about whether Ike and Kay consummated the relationship. Whatever you believe, it is indisputable that Ike spent much of the war very publicly spending a lot of time with a woman 20-years younger than him. In memoirs and diaries, other generals and leaders note the inappropriateness of the close relationship between the two. One interesting note — when Ike returned to the States in November 1945, to become Chief of Staff of the Army, his wife Mamie refused to move from her apartment in downtown DC to General Eisenhower’s quarters on Fort Myers for several months.
Conclusion
Other Eisenhower Posts that I have done are:
Ike’s 8 Characteristics of Leadership
Interested in having a Leadership Experience that uses history and its leadership examples, like General Eisenhower, to enhance your team’s leadership today? TFCG offers the D-Day, Market-Garden, and Battle of the Bulge Leadership Experiences in Europe and the Eisenhower, War in the Pacific, and Pearl Harbor Leadership Experiences in the United States. Send me an email and we can start the discussion today about building better leaders in your organization using a historic Leadership Experience. Or click on the picture to learn more:
In the meantime, go on the offensive and don’t emulate Eisenhower’s flaws.