Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership
()
About this ebook
"Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership" examines the theory and practice of collaboration, and collaborative leadership, in the life and career of Dwight Eisenhower. It relates his collaborative style to his ideas about friendship, his Kansas upbringing and his family, his military training and career, and his particular practice of presidential leadership, which operated through teams and a deliberate, sophisticated system of bureaucratic consensus-building. "Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership" elaborates an alternative interpretation of such leadership, describing Eisenhower not merely as a “hidden-hand” president, but also as a visible one at the head of a well-managed team. It is a concise portrait of one of America’s most important and talented leaders, and a case study in sound leadership.
Read more from Kenneth Weisbrode
Real Influencers: Fourteen Disappearing Acts that Left Fingerprints on History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership
Titles in the series (38)
The Gothic Literature and History of New England: Secrets of the Restless Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian History: Twenty-One Unusual Historical Events Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAustralian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White: Governing Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNotions of Otherness: Literary Essays from Abraham Cahan to Dacia Maraini Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShots to the Heart: For the Love of Film Performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMulticriteria Analysis for Environmental Decision-Making Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChanges in the Higher Education Sector: Contemporary Drivers and the Pursuit of Excellence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Narrative of Cultural Encounter in Southern China: Wu Xing Fights the 'Jiao' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTheatricality in the Horror Film: A Brief Study on the Dark Pleasures of Screen Artifice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDispossession and the Making of Jedda: Hollywood in Ngunnawal Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBauman, Elias and Latour on Modernity and Its Alternatives: Three Contemporary Sociological Theorists on Modernity and Other Options Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Augustan Science Poets: Abraham Cowley, James Thomson, Henry Brooke, Erasmus Darwin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Making of the Modern Chinese Navy: Special Historical Characteristics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommitment in the Artistic Practice of Aref El-Rayess: The Changing of Horses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKA: Reading the Archives against the Grain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Domains of Identity: A Framework for Understanding Identity Systems in Contemporary Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClimate Change and the Future of Seattle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElegy for Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOccupational Devotion: Finding Satisfaction and Fulfillment at Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGothic Kernow: Cornwall as Strange Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSounding Prose: Music in the 17th-Century Dutch Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollective Complaints As a Means for Protecting Social Rights in Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dao of Civilization: A Letter to China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Origin and Development of Dougong and Zaojing in Early China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncertainty Bands: A Guide to Predicting and Regulating Economic Processes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTasos Leivaditis' Triptych: Battle at the Edge of the Night, This Star Is for All of Us, The Wind at the Crossroads of the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGulf Gothic: Mexico, the U.S. South and La Llorona’s Undead Voices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSwedish Gothic: Landscapes of Untamed Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAuthoritarian Collectivism and ‘Real Socialism’: Twentieth Century Trajectory, Twenty-First Century Issues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Eisenhower Volume I: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eisenhower Volume II: The President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5President Eisenhower in an Era of Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eisenhower Legacy: Discussions of Presidential Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower for Our Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woodrow Wilson’s Wars: The Making of America's First Modern Commander-in-Chief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis--Suez and the Brink of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ike in Love and War: How Dwight D. Eisenhower Sacrificed Himself to Keep the Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Words of Theodore Roosevelt: Quotations from the Man in the Arena Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eisenhower: Soldier and President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/527 Articles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Notes on Bret Baier’s Three Days in January Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEisenhower: A Biography Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOpportunity In Danger: Manstein’s East Front Strategy From 19 November 1942 To 18 March 1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Proxy Warriors: The Rise and Fall of State-Sponsored Militias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDwight D. Eisenhower at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeceit on the Road to War: Presidents, Politics, and American Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rhetorical Presidency: New Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Precious than Peace: A New History of America in World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism, and the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism, and the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Sisters in Black: The Bizarre True Case of the Bathtub Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Right Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership - Kenneth Weisbrode
Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership
Eisenhower and the Art of Collaborative Leadership
Kenneth Weisbrode
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2018
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright © Kenneth Weisbrode 2018
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-838-6 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-838-9 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
For C. Richard Nelson and W. Scott Thompson (†)
CONTENTS
Preface
1.Introduction
2.Family
3.Friends
4.Educators
5.Leaders
6.Soldiers
7.Statesmen
8.Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
This is a short study of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s style of leadership. It traces two concepts—collaboration and friendship—over the course of his life with the aim of exploring a particular theory of leadership, as applied to Eisenhower’s career and practices. It traces them not by reconstructing events or great deeds—as many other historians and biographers have already done—but instead by a synthetic and comparative history of Eisenhower’s relationships, and the personality types and character roles that made those relationships, and collaboration, work.
A collaborative leader is a cross between a coach, cheerleader and administrator. For any single leader to play all three roles simultaneously would appear almost impossible. Various people, including Eisenhower himself, have tried to interpret the roles in combination. The most familiar of the interpretations is that of the hidden hand. But this hand was not hidden all the time. Nor was it a guiding or manipulating hand so much as a grip that inspired, persuaded and compelled others, especially friends, of their own accord, to collaborate on behalf of the greater good.
To isolate and reproduce the qualities behind Eisenhower’s effectiveness as a leader, we need not rely entirely on his self-image or fall back upon ineffability. The qualities were mysterious but not unknowable. They originated from his place in his own large family, his experiences in a small Midwestern town in the early twentieth century, in his military education and early military assignments and, finally, in his development of emotional intelligence during the war when his main, overriding mission, besides victory, was to keep the alliance fighting and winning together. All this made him well suited to be president during a time of perceived consensus. Yet even here Eisenhower did not take consensus or collaboration for granted. His presidency may have papered over a few deep social divisions—which, as some critics would later say, led to crises that blew up during the 1960s and 1970s. Had these crises blown up earlier, as some civil rights and labor disputes nearly did just after the war, today we might be talking about the tumultuous 1950s. But these divisions did not blow up then, for which there were important reasons.¹
Today we may overlook just how dangerous the decade of the 1950s was, especially its first half; this danger was not just at home but also, and even more so, abroad. Therefore this study begins with a bias, to which it gives full, initial disclosure here: that the American people were very fortunate to have had Dwight Eisenhower as their president when they did, and that they were even more fortunate to have allowed him, and themselves, to partake in a collaboration of the first order.
This study was commissioned by the Eisenhower Legacy Council in partnership with the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College. I am grateful to the late Doug Price, a former Eisenhower aide and member of the institute’s board of directors, and to Jeffrey Blavatt, the council’s executive director, for making it possible. I also thank the manuscript’s two anonymous reviewers, as well as Tej Sood, Abi Pandey, Nisha Vetrivel, Leigh Westerfield, Berat Melih Kalender, Füsun Yurdakul, Semra Kesler and especially Heather Yeung.
K.W.
Ankara, November 2017
1 See David A. Nichols, A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007).
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of America’s greatest leaders. This is not disputed today. His military service brought about victory in World War II. His two presidential terms saw an end to the Korean War, the beginning of a modus vivendi with the Soviet Union, political consensus at home and rising prosperity for many Americans. Although some at the time saw Eisenhower as a detached, even passive, president, that view has diminished since the coming to light of evidence demonstrating that Eisenhower as president was every bit as hands-on and masterful as he had been as a general. This is now the consensus view among historians.¹
History’s verdict on Eisenhower as both general and president is that he was a superior commander. And perhaps command may be the most familiar type of leadership. But it is not the only kind. The study of leadership during the past few decades has grown to become a multifaceted field of scholarship in several disciplines. It now not only treats the psychology and education of leaders but also looks at followers and the many connections between them. Additionally, the study of leadership today also includes systems of leadership, which reminds us that to lead well involves much more than to be in command.
The army taught Eisenhower to lead. He knew how to discipline soldiers; to inspire them to do their utmost; to instill cohesion and loyalty. It is customary (albeit simplistic) to say there are two types of commanders—Marshalls and MacArthurs: the quiet, thoughtful, planner and the loud, brilliant, performer. Eisenhower had served under both men, but he fit neither stereotype. He was an interesting blend of command type. On the surface, he was more like George Marshall. He gained his reputation in the army as a staff officer rather than as a field commander. He was drawn to planning both intellectually and emotionally; he was even said to relish staff work. He also had the rare ability to be able to visualize multiple theaters at once, and to connect the overarching aims of each with likely costs and benefits overall. He was, in the strict sense, what we would call today a strategic thinker.
At the same time, Eisenhower was a shrewd operational commander and tactician. He was the rare card player who excelled both at bridge and at poker, combining strategic and tactical gifts.² He had a keen sense of timing, and could act quickly, decisively and creatively when the need arose. Most historians regard it as ironic that Eisenhower escaped commanding troops in combat during World War I, and would then go on to command the largest army in modern history, as well as the largest amphibious invasion, in World War II. It was telling, however, that Franklin Roosevelt insisted on having Eisenhower command the D-Day invasion, which meant passing over Marshall, because the president insisted that he needed Marshall in Washington. As Robert Ferrell has written, this turned out to be a wise decision, for Marshall knew how to handle President Roosevelt, a formidable and dangerous figure. The president was especially dangerous when he was friendly, for it was then that his amateur urges became pronounced and he was likely to suggest some inappropriate solution to a problem. […] Marshall was just the man to contain the president’s amateur urges.
³ That lesson would not have been lost on Eisenhower.
As in any strong commander, the traits noted above—discipline, patience, foresight, thoughtfulness, bearing, decisiveness, creativity—were interrelated. Yet the one quality that made Eisenhower so formidable a leader was not any one of these, nor was it the sum of them. Eisenhower’s formidability lay in his power of empathy and his talent for inspiring and promoting collaboration. He was, in other words, a first-rate manager.
Operation Overlord was far more than a monumental invasion. It was an even more monumental experiment in combined warfare. And it was in this theater and in this operation that Eisenhower’s managerial talents shone at their brightest. It did not simply exercise his gifts for command, planning and execution, but also in having to lead so diverse a combined force from several nations, including taking command of a few would-be MacArthurs—that is to say, prima donnas—Eisenhower’s diplomatic and political skills were tested. He once told James Forrestal, organizing teams, personality is equally important with ability. […] I simply cannot over-stress this point.
⁴ All commanders must contend with difficult and diverging terrains, adversaries and personalities. What made Eisenhower’s case especially noteworthy in World War II was the scale and the stakes it involved.
Eisenhower’s performance during the Cold War was no less noteworthy. Again, the stakes were global, and Eisenhower was leading the most powerful member of the Western alliance. He not only designed and launched the military component of the alliance—NATO—but was also elected president of the United States at the moment at which the Cold War entered a period of intense rivalry—on land, sea, air and space, and in the minds of millions around the world. Faced with these challenges he was not amiss when he said the strongest weapon is unity.
⁵
Eisenhower had a gift for, as he put it, standing in the other man’s shoes. He used the phrase to describe his engagement with an adversary, especially during the Cold War, and often with reference to the Soviet Union. There is nothing especially remarkable about the phrase; it is standard fare in military education—know thine enemy. Yet, Eisenhower not only applied the concept to his or his nation’s enemies; he also applied it to his friends and allies, at times evidently less by choice than by necessity. A navy officer […] is trying to act as ‘United States Secretary on Collaboration,’
he noted in his diary on January 27, 1942. My God, how I hate to work by any method that forces me to depend on someone else.
⁶
The intersection between alliance and friendship is a broad topic. Both require constant tending; neither is self-perpetuating or even self-justifying.⁷ Friendship—or, to use the more formal, related term, amity—has long been at the root of international order. Treaties need not include amity among their clauses but, when they do, they may be understood as being more beneficial and possibly more lasting. Between individuals, friendships are often broken and sometimes repaired. This is also true among nations. Yet, friendship between states, and between their peoples, is more normative than the majority of personal friendships. Friendship between states, conducted on an international stage, carries with it the notions of order and progress. Hostile relations and noncommunication are the primitive norm in what we still call an anarchical society. Peace, communication and friendship are steps forward, and with each step comes a hard-earned bit of progress.
This earning, this progress, is achieved through statecraft, and to foster statecraft, statesmen must know empathy. They must somehow be able to see the interests of the other side or sides, and be able to translate these interests for their own side, and their own side’s interests into something appreciable by the other side, and then to find some mutual accommodation that serves both sides. Eisenhower had this talent. No other Cold War president paid more attention to, and had a better feel for, allied relationships than Eisenhower. No other Cold War president, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, had a greater capacity to persuade America’s allies that he spoke best for, and appealed most to, Middle America than Eisenhower. Thus, his talent was not simply to stand in the other guy’s shoes but also, and just as importantly, to persuade the other guy that he had this talent, to cause him to respect this and to communicate that this was a talent