Reply #10: Ike was no chickenhawk

[Joeve]

When I recently saw a PBS documentary on D-Day. Apparently Ike never personally led troops into battle. Kinda chickenhawkish.

I would disagree there, first as a matter of definition: a chickenhawk is primarily PRO-war but prefers to let others fight. Not all military men are pro-war, and there were plenty of high-ranking generals who never personally led troops into combat. Patton did, and he was great at doing what he did, but he was a vicious prick who would never have been able to coordinate with the European generals (especially Montgomery, who he was always competing with). Same with that bastard MacArthur, though I credit him for doing an excellent job in Japan after WWII. But he wanted to drop nukes on China, for crying out loud!

It was Ike's role as Commander of the European forces that made him well-suited for the Presidency at that time, he made America's role in re-building Europe much easier because he was already familiar with most of the upper-ranking leaders. Also, the federal highway system was and is domestically a boon to businesses, plus the creation of NASA occurred because of him.

Ike could also be free to speak out against other military leaders, because he had been there: I remember him bitching about how the only way he would be able to get some of his generals to balance their military budgets would be to hand out medals for doing so.

The only problem I have with him is that he allowed the McCarthy hearings to go on too long, a word from him would have stopped it in its tracks...