‘Becoming Eisenhower: How Ike Rose from Obscurity to Supreme Allied Commander’
By Michael Lee Lanning
Stackpole Books, 288 pages

A passage near the end of Michael Lee Lanning’s biography sums up the extraordinarily different personalities and places that made the successful leadership of Dwight Eisenhower possible: 

“The boy from the wrong side of the tracks in a small Kansas town was well on his way to becoming the supreme Allied commander. The people of Abilene, his parents, the cadre at West Point, John Pershing, Bernard Baruch, Fox Conner, Douglas MacArthur, George Moseley, Charles Thompson, Kenyon Joyce, Walter Krueger, and George Marshall—all had contributed to Ike becoming Eisenhower.”

Eisenhower grew up in a family that could not afford to send him to college, and what money Ike earned went to fund an older brother’s college education. Joining the military seemed the only way for Ike to get to college. Even though his pacifist mother disapproved of her son’s choice, she backed him all the way, exemplifying the solidarity of a family that made Eisenhower realize that he could only succeed with an army of supporters behind him. 

Mr. Lanning is very good at showing the contingency of Eisenhower’s career. Although he was sometimes rated no better than average — beginning at West Point — his ability to get along with and support his superior officers and fellow soldiers soon became evident. An early indication was his skill as a football coach, which displayed both his organizing capacity and ability to instill discipline while winning the trust of those with whom he served. 

Eisenhower requested combat assignments and was continually frustrated by staff jobs. The way to quick promotion was in war. Training troops and staff officers was his talent, the army decided. With Generals Pershing and MacArthur, Eisenhower became their voices, able to write as they wished, even as Eisenhower chafed at serving in subordinate roles.

Not until George Marshall had a good look at Eisenhower and reviewed his record did he realize that Eisenhower — better than MacArthur and many others who outranked Eisenhower — had the mind, perspective, and diplomatic skills to work with allies and field the invasion that eventually earned victory in World War II.

Eisenhower’s moves to Panama and the Philippines put a strain on his marriage, and his wife Mamie had to deal with his single-minded loyalty to the Army, but in the end, as Mr. Lanning tells it, she became reconciled to being an Army wife and performed her role with considerable humor and understanding. Ike made the decisions, and she rebelled only once — insisting on his taking an assignment at Paris, which once again turned out to be the right choice, as Eisenhower was given assignments that made him an even better writer.

Mr. Lanning is determined not to dramatize Eisenhower as man of destiny, as if his ascent to supreme commander was inevitable. For a long time, service to the preening MacArthur made it seem as though Eisenhower would never distinguish himself in his own right. It took a no-nonsense leader like George Marshall to understand that only Eisenhower would not let his ego get in the way of ultimate victory.

Occasionally, Mr. Lanning lapses into the tiresome foreknowledge that is a feature of some biography. Here is Eisenhower on the way to MacArthur, who thinks he has just convinced FDR to retain him as the Army’s chief of staff when in fact he is about to be demoted: “Little did he suspect that he would be boarding just in time to witness one of MacArthur’s greatest calamities.” 

An arbitrary boss who nonetheless implicitly depended on Eisenhower, MacArthur comes off as Ike’s greatest challenge: How to serve a man who only wants to serve himself? Ike did not prevail by the usual obsequious behavior that other MacArthur subordinates practiced, but instead stood up to the general and survived the clashes because he was so good at his job — until, that is, MacArthur found another toady to do the work. By then, though, Eisenhower had come to the attention of George Marshall.

Mr. Lanning has found a neat way to keep his narrative taut and to stay within the boundaries of his chronology: He includes an Epilogue that provides essential information about the people and institutions that played their part in Ike becoming Eisenhower. 

Mr. Rollyson’s work in progress is “Making the American Presidency: How Biographers Shape History.”