NOMINEE: Dwight D. Eisenhower
NOMINATED BY: Bob Dole, former U.S. Senator
The next time someone asks whether character
counts in a leader, remind them of D-day, June 6, 1944. In the
months leading up to it, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight
Eisenhower assembled an armada of 4,400 ships and landing craft,
11,000 airplanes and 155,000 troops with which to liberate Europe
from the Nazis. Then, having done his best, Eisenhower imagined
the worst. Along with a ringing message to his troops, he drafted
a different one in case the invasion failed. In it he said, "If
any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."
Ike's integrity, on and off the battlefield, gave him
unparalleled credibility in the postwar world, whether launching
Atoms for Peace; ending the war in Korea; sending federal troops
to Little Rock, Ark., to integrate the school; or warning against
the evils of what he named "the military-industrial complex." It
has taken us nearly a half-century to see the true dimension of
Eisenhower's achievements.-- Bob Dole, former U.S. Senator
|
|
|
