How Ike Led; The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2020. Fourth printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Miranda Harple (Author photograph). [12], 387, [1] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Signed by the author on the title page. Susan Elaine Eisenhower (born December 31, 1951) is an American consultant, author, and expert on international security, space policy, energy, and relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America. She is the daughter of John Eisenhower and the granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower is President of the Eisenhower Group, Inc, which provides strategic counsel on political, business, and public affairs projects. She has consulted for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies doing business in the emerging markets of the former Soviet Union and for a number of major institutions engaged in the energy field. She is also Chairman of Leadership and Public Policy Programs and Chairman Emeritus of the Eisenhower Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, owned and operated by Gettysburg College. Eisenhower served as the president of the Eisenhower Institute twice, and later as chair. During that time, she became known for her work in the former Soviet Union and in the energy field. In January 2010, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu appointed Eisenhower to serve on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, which has been asked to develop a long-term solution for safely managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Derived from a Kirkus review: A granddaughter of the 34th president celebrates his life and accomplishments. The author, who published a memoir, Mrs. Ike (1996), about her grandmother, turns her attention to her grandfather in this amalgam of biography, memoir, and history. She celebrates his remarkable life, noting his humility and "intellectual honesty" and how he was "transparent and accountable" to the public and possessed a "determination to put the country first." The author is clearly determined to remind readers of his many accomplishments—not only in World War II (he organized D-Day, among many other operations), but during the eight years of his presidency (1953-1961). She credits him for laying the groundwork for civil rights—e.g., he sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to facilitate school integration—balancing budgets, keeping us out of war, working hard to get the U.S. into space, refusing to attack his critics in public, and declining to diminish himself by responding to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and, later, to the Democrats who tried to use the early Soviet space achievements for a political advantage. She shows him as an empathetic family man with a strong moral compass. In the epilogue, the author attacks the tribalism poisoning our current political climate. A patent paean to a beloved grandfather and his military, political, and family achievements.