Eisenhower On PBS

Our local PBS station yesterday rebroadcast a program that had been made on the 20th anniversary of D-Day in 1964. The program was primarily a two hour interview of DDE by Walter Conchright while they toured D-Day related sites on both sides of and from the Channel. The program was absolutely riveting.

DDE was the big surprise to me in how articulate, intelligent and decisive he was. Since I had read many accounts of the action including 'Crusade in Europe' there were no real factual revelations. I was a teen during much of the time he was president and the newsreels of the day did him a disservice. He was a far more robust a person than the image that I had constructed. Regards,

John Phillips

Anyone know where a copy of this show can be obtained. I was hoping somebody would nationally show this (PBS or CBS) but all I could find it shown on was a New York PBS station.

Another great show is Dan Rather's return with D-Day survivors to the European battlefields.

On 7 Jun 2004 16:13:08 GMT, John Phillips

The image of Eisenhower being stupid basically was created by his Democratic Party opponents while he was President. It is true that during press conferences he would give what seemed to be inarticulate responses, but years after he left the Presidency the view developed that he did this on purpose in order to avoid giving clear answers to questions he didn't like and not because he didn't know what was going on. Of course, he had both a heart attack and a stroke during his term as President and this would possibly effect his public presence as well.

An interesting side note to that documentary. Mrs Esienhower later asked Walter Cronkite if, during their jeep drive on the beach if he (Walter) let Ike drive. He replyed 'of course, why' Well, Mamie replied, Ike can't drive