Outside Reading

(Due to the fact that this *is* the last required post, things may be missing (i.e. President Eisenhower)

The war was almost over, just Japan and the U.S. There was a great question of choosing to drop THE bomb over Japan. Eisenhower happened to depressed at this time. He was against the dropping of the atom bomb (Ambrose 426). Once again, I wonder what happened to Eisenhower's rationality, as if the U.S. were to take Japan in a full land invasion, countless lives would be lost. Then again, with the bomb countless lives would be lost as well. During this plotting, he took multiple trips to assess the damage done in Europe. He thought at first that Germany had suffered the worst of the war. However, when he flew to Russia, he did not see "a single house standing intact from the Russian-Polish border to Moscow. Not one" (426). I assume that this would change Eisenhower's mindset on the bomb, and it did, as it further showed the horrors of war to him. The bombing was done, and what happened...happened.

Later in his life, Eisenhower would overcome other obstacles, like the McCarthy deal against him. Of course, he managed to shrug this off. He, as President, accomplished many reforms. And as for his effort in the war, he is viewed as a hero by many.

Outside Reading

Eisenhower was preparing for D-Day. He was secluded from his wife for another period of time. Every now and then during the planning of D-Day, events would come up that would hinder the process. An example of this is that during May 29,1944, he received a message that "indicated the Germans were reinforcing the area where the American paratroopers were going to drop" (Ambrose 302). I don't know how they fixed this, but it would be pretty hard to re-coordinate such an operation like this. However, Eisenhower decided to continue with the action. This surprised me as Eisenhower's past decisions took into account the risks that would be involved, along with a more rational approach, and now he wants to charge in like this. I guess that is what war does.

D-Day was soon coming into effect. However, weather conditions delayed the siege, like high winds and bad tides (Ambrose 306). This led to further postponement later on. Couldn't they have planned better for this kind of situation? Anyway, the operation took place on June 6. The Allies had seized control of the beaches, and broke Hitler's Atlantic wall with minimal costs and lives lost (Ambrose 310). I am personally surprised at the success of this operation, due to the size of it and how bad of a position the Allies were in.

Outside reading.

For Eisenhower, World War II was building up. He was a commanding officer, and promoted to major general (temporarily) (Ambrose 144). I find this deal weird. Eisenhower keeps getting promoted, but demoted in the near future. Why is not possible just to give someone a rank and let them keep it? Anyway, Eisenhower had 107 officers working under hi in April as part of the Operations Division. The main resource he needed for his job of planning was intelligence/reconnaissance (Ambrose 145). He continued to work his way up, impressing generals. He would take some non-aggressive measures, like avoiding to send a bunch of troops to Northern Ireland(Ambrose 147). He did later build an offensive when the Germans were breaking further into Europe and assigned attacks in mid-1942 (190). He continued to control the timing of when things were done. Things weren't high stakes, yet.

Eisenhower had worked with Winston Churchill to plan the taking of Northern Africa and shifting away from France. The movement took place during November (202). He made a deal with Francois Darlan that the French would support Eisenhower in return for Darlan earning a politcal title (208). I really don't see why one would give resources for a minor political position. Apparently, it must have been more important that it seemed. This "Darlan Deal" was harshly criticized, but had to be done. Darlan was soon assassinated (215). I guess it makes sense, given the "sale" of a politcal office. Eisenhower continued the African campaign, despite this turmoil. The campaign finally ended after six months, with drastic costs: 10,820 men dead, 39,575 wounds, 21415 missing/captured, but a victory is a victory (237). This shows the resilience that a leader must have, one that can tolerate deaths, and just brush them off as "acceptable losses."

CNN is super liberal

After watching Lou Dobbs for one whole hour (yeah, I made it), I have learned of the annoying bias of CNN (The most trusted name in news? :O) Lou Dobbs talked about the following for the hour: Madoff/the huge Ponzi scheme and especially how the government failed to detect it, salmonella food recall and how the FDA isn't doing their job, how Obama will fix everything, and how Sarah Palin is inexperienced (a little too late now?). So to comment on each: Lou, the government fails. So what? It's because of all those liberals. Let me put it this way: do you want a government that someone works, or no government. Yes, Lou Dobbs is an anarchist! Anyway, Lou Dobbs spends his time bashing on how the SEC failed to detect this. Lou, could YOU figure this one out? Could any other government figure this out? The answer is a shocking NO. At least those victimized will get their socialist security checks. Onto the salmonella (that's in Minnesota). Lou complains that the government couldn't detect the contaminated peanut butter in time. Um, liberal exaggeration. I'm pretty sure the government cleaned up this mess within a week. Besides, it's like Sinclair's "Jungle" and if the government weren't here, Lou, you'd be dead. So learn to appreciate your government, and how Obama will give me your plasma TV.

Eisenhower returned to Union Station in Washington, in which he then went to the War Department. He was debriefed about the whole situation involving the Pacific, including the Phillipines and Pearl Harbor, where Eisenhower admitted that it wouldn't be possible to get reinforcements to the Phillipines before the Japanese would take over (Ambrose 133). This shows that Eisenhower would accept defeat, and wasn't some kind of egomaniac that wouldn't take "no" for an answer. However, Eisenhower's mindset of taking losses didn't appeal to MacArthur, which caused Eisenhower to be irritated. Eisenhower also got mad at the Navy for just planning on fighting by itself, not listening for orders to build aircraft carriers, but just having a large fleet of warships (Ambrose 141). This shows that Eisenhower is a rational person who believes in teamwork but doesn't like ignorance and not what is best.