The Eisenhower Diaries

In his books—the memoir of the Second World War, the two large volumes on the presidency, the incomplete autobiography written near the end of his life—Eisenhower related the course of events over the years, with descriptive detail and frequently with humor, but he usually stayed away from analysis. In his many private letters to friends and acquaintances, some of which have been published, he was more frank, but he still held back. And the public record of his military career and of his presidency does not reflect many open, frank statements, proofs that the soldier-president thought long and deeply about issues, personal or public; it has given substance to the speculation by many of his contemporaries and by some later students of Eisenhower that he was essentially a public relations man and that his life was all outward—an expression of assent and agreement or at least of forebearance, of a man who never had an idea or, if he did, would quickly chase it out of sight.