Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about

to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other

fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine.

The elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and

security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one.

Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle hardened.

He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944.

Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940 41.

The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats

in open battle, man to man.

Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their

capacity to wage war on the ground.

Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in

weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great

reserves of trained fighting men.

The tide has turned.

The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good luck.

And let us all beseech the blessing of almighty God upon

this great and noble undertaking.

Welcome to Top of History.

I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.

Hello!

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels,

YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

So, Jen, I'm excited.

Because we are starting our road trip series.

For those listening, if you follow us on Instagram or YouTube, you

might know we traveled for about two and a half weeks, and we saw a

ton of history all across the West.

So to celebrate that, Jen, I have a history joke for you.

Okay.

What kind of tea did the American colonists want at the Boston Tea Party?

Um,

I don't know.

Liberty.

So for those listening, if you like that joke, or perhaps if you have a better

one, leave us a review on Apple podcast or Spotify, wherever you're listening.

The reviews really do help us the show grow.

And you know that the History Channel doesn't do jokes like that.

There's probably better.

So help us out and let's get more people listening to talk with history Before

we go into the main subject tonight.

This is again.

This is gonna be our first stop on our road trip I do we did get another

five star review on the podcast.

This is someone that I actually know so I'm gonna read this out This is from

Jennifer Medeiros fit is that is the name?

Five stars hands down the best history podcast around Scott

and Jen are a dynamic Duo and an absolute delight to listen to you.

My wife and I have been using the podcast and YouTube episodes

to help enhance our trips.

The tips are so helpful.

This is one of those shows.

It just puts me in a good mood.

The more somber topics are treated with reverence and respect they deserve.

But beyond that, the show is just plain fun.

I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a great podcast that is

extremely informative without being overly stuffy or academic Jason M.

So it's a husband and wife.

Uh, he actually, I used to work with him, um, he actually, he texted me

that the other day and just said he's really been enjoying the show.

So, uh, Jason and Jennifer, thank you so much for the review.

It really does mean a lot to get the feedback like that because right

now our listenership is, is limited.

We're, we're growing and, and those, those reviews really do, really do help us.

So, so thank you so much guys.

What are we talking about?

What's kind of the first place we stopped on our road

trip?

Well, after we stopped in.

Nashville, we were driving across Kansas, and we saw signs for the

Eisenhower, um, Presidential Museum and Library, and we're like, oh my

gosh, it's right along the interstate.

Yeah, we hadn't planned on stopping there.

We hadn't planned on stopping there, but it was, it's right off the interstate, and

it was a perfect time stop with our kids.

And so we stopped at the Dwight D.

Eisenhower Presidential Library and

Museum.

That's right.

So, and I don't think...

Too many commonly know that he is from the middle of nowhere, Kansas.

Yeah, he is

from Abilene, Kansas So that's where we stopped we stopped It's basically

the middle of Kansas and he moved there when he was two years old He was born in

Texas, but he there's his family moves there when he's two so he considers it his

hometown Yeah, he was born.

I believe in Denison,

Texas, Denison, Texas, October 14th 1890

1890 And then we, we kind of, we get off the freeway, we're like, Hey,

this actually works out perfectly for us.

It's right.

It was right on our lunch break.

It's, it's a few minutes off the freeway, off the 70.

And so we, we drive in there and we are smack in the middle of Kansas.

There's, there's not much out there and it is, it's one of those towns,

like the thing that it's known for is being the hometown of Kansas.

of Dwight D.

Eisenhower.

So it's Eisenhower's Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home.

And that's kind of why the museum and library is located there, is because it's

kind of built around his boyhood home.

And, um, the address is 200 Southeast 4th Street in Abilene, Kansas.

And it's basically, it's a 22 acre Spread campus and you can stop there.

The admission is free and it's going to encompass a library, a museum.

There's a chapel where he is buried with his wife and son, and then

they have like a visitor center.

where they have a movie and a gift shop, but they also have a nice

kind of garden with a statue of him.

And of course his boyhood home.

The

thing is, we didn't have a ton of time this because

this wasn't planned for us.

We didn't go into the museum.

We didn't go inside too much of the stuff, the visitor center a little bit.

And then we kind of toured around, like you said, that the.

larger kind of garden area where the statue was and we saw his rest in place.

Yeah, we

take you outside of everything.

We didn't go in the museum or the library.

We go to the statue, we go outside the boyhood home, but we go into

the place of meditation, the burial site, and we go into the visitors.

Yeah, and that's

all in the video.

I'll link that in the show notes, but...

Let's step back and kind of start from the beginning for here.

So tell us a little bit about Ike.

Ike.

So he, again, he's born in Denison, Texas.

He's born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14th, 1890.

He's the third of seven boys.

Can you imagine?

I cannot.

And he's born to Ida Stover and David Eisenhower.

So if you recognize David David, it wasn't long, his mother soon

reversed his name to avoid confusion.

So we know him as Dwight David Eisenhower.

Uh, but he was born David Dwight Eisenhower.

So it wasn't, um, long, two years after he's born, they moved to Abilene, Kansas.

And the house...

That you see there, they move into in 1898, so he's actually eight years

old when he moves into that house, but that is the one that survives.

That's his boyhood home.

And that house is there all the way up until, I think it's

1946, when Ida will pass away.

Okay, so all the boys are raised there.

Her, his father will pass away there.

His mother will pass away in 1946 and 1947, it becomes open to the public.

So it's given to the National Park Service.

So what you see of that boyhood home is the Eisenhowers

were the last to live there.

And then after Ida passes, it's open to the public for everyone.

And what's interesting about that house is that it's all through the war.

So I mentioned that in the video, like they're going to be getting

telegrams as their son is the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.

Uh, in Germany.

So they're going to be getting all that updates, all those, um,

telegrams and things along that.

They're going to be in that house as it happens.

And what's very interesting is Ida was like anti war.

Oh, interesting.

She did not believe in the war, but she had some books

about war, um, in the house.

And he read them as a young kid and he was very interested in it.

But what actually happened for Eisenhower is they don't come

from a lot of means, right?

And so he, him and his older brother decided we will go to college in tandem.

You go a year, I'll work to pay for you to go.

I'll go a year and you pay to work while I go and we'll

finish college back and forth.

forth like that.

Kind of think of it.

It's a wonderful life when him and his brother are like, I'm going to

work so to pay for you and you can work, you know, well, what happens

is his brother is doing so well.

He asks to stay another year.

Ike is like, yes, I'll work some more, um, to pay for you to stay in college.

And then someone says to him, you know, you could go to

like the academies for free.

And he's like, Oh, I never really thought about that.

So he applies to the Naval Academy and West Point.

Now he's too, he gets an appointment for both, but he's too old at the

time to go to the Naval Academy.

Oh, no way.

So he goes to West Point.

So he goes to West Point in 1915 when he actually graduates

Abilene High School in 1909.

Oh

wow.

So he was, he was

older going through.

Oh wait.

So he graduates in 1915.

Okay.

So yeah, he's class of 1909.

His appointment to West Point in 1911, so two years after he's graduated.

And then, so he's, he's older and he's an average student.

He's not, you know, he's not a top of his class, he's not MacArthur, right?

The highest ever graduated from West Point, which is interesting because

he'll work for MacArthur and they're both five star generals in the end.

But, um, so he graduates in 1915 and he does it because it's free.

So you can

understand.

I mean, that's, that's why I went to the Naval Academy.

My parents didn't

have to pay.

Exactly.

And that's why I got the RIT scholarship to Penn State.

So he saw the same means that we saw, right?

We're able to get an education through service.

That's, that's so interesting.

And it kind of makes me wonder what that conversation was like with his mom.

Who's kind of obviously.

We find out later, kind of anti war, right, and here is his

son going to West Point, right?

One of the most prestigious military academies in the world.

You know, I'm sure back then, and if you think about it, right, if he's

born in 1890 and here it is, you know, let's say 20 years later, right,

he goes approximately when he's 20.

That's not that long after that, that mentality of getting your

start in the world through the military is still relative.

It must.

have still been in the culture back then.

Cause even think about some of the, we talk about civil war and American

revolution, a lot of businessmen either went into the military when

conflicts happened or they got their start there to kind of get themselves

established.

Absolutely.

Like even doing, you think of Hamilton, he keeps saying, I wish

there was a war we can make our name.

Right.

Right.

Because he has no means he's coming from no means.

So this was a way...

for young men who wanted to make their name for themselves to really establish

themselves in society and when you think about Other people who have done this

remember Lincoln's son Robert he wants to join the Civil War right because even

as a gentleman who has means and he's able to go to school He still wants to

be a part of it because this really is at the time and maybe even so today Men

really measured this as your service.

As you know, you have established yourself as a man in society.

You're defending something, you're part of something, you're, you know, serving

your country.

Yeah.

I mean, and, and obviously military service is still highly respected today.

Right.

And that's gone.

Mm-hmm.

come and gone in waves.

Mm-hmm.

, you know, in, in, in the country, depending on conflicts going on.

But back then, I think it was still even more so that old school mentality of.

seen very, very highly in society as like, Oh, you're an army officer

or you're a naval officer, right?

That's you know, they do this in movies women even sought out, you

know Oh, he's a captain in the army or the Navy or whatever it is.

Yeah, so that's interesting that that's Uh that he went to West Point.

Yeah, so he went to West Point.

Um, it's not even long.

So he's graduating in 1915 He gets married in 1916.

So he meets, uh, Mamie Dowd.

She is they meet in Texas She's from Iowa

and you know what if you see young pictures of Dwight Eisenhower, he

is a handsome man He is a very handsome.

I could look it up and watch our video But you, you look up some young videos

of him and his wife, like, when he's still at Their wedding picture, yeah.

He is a good looking

guy.

If you look at their wedding picture, she's sitting and he's

standing with his arms crossed.

He didn't want to wrinkle his uniform.

Yeah.

That's why he's not sitting down.

But, uh, yeah, he's.

It's very handsome.

And they get married, I think, in someone's living room.

So it's of that time again where marriages happen relatively quickly.

And as you can imagine, World War I, we're on the cusp of World War I here.

So he doesn't get to go over for World War I, but he ends up training a tank crew.

And he will do that in 1918.

He will get stationed outside of Gettysburg, and that'll be

more relevant later when we get to the Eisenhower Gettysburg.

Gettysburg Ranch.

So it's a, it's an area he always loved and that he's stationed out there

training a tank crew and then, you know, he's going to, of course, work his way

up in the military by World War II.

You know, he's Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff for MacArthur, and then he becomes

Supreme Allied Commander and then he of the expeditionary forces for Germany.

And that's when he becomes a five star general, uh, in 1944, but he's a

part of two big campaigns that really make his name Operation Torch in North

Africa, very big tank driven operation and then D Day invasion of Normandy in

1944.

If you're listening and you haven't seen our video on this, I

actually found, I think it was a CBS interview where he goes back.

with Walter Cronkite to Normandy 20 years after D Day.

Yes.

And so it's really, really neat.

So I put that footage in the video, and I highly encourage

you to go watch it because it's really neat to see Eisenhower.

I mean, he's talking about all these movements.

He's talking about the operation.

He's talking about all this stuff like he remembered it yesterday.

I went over to a...

The field from which the, uh, Airborne, the

American Airborne, started out.

Now, I couldn't go to all these fields because there were many of them.

But I did go into the 101st Division.

And, um, it was a very fine experience.

They were getting ready and all camouflaged and their

faces blackened and all this.

And they saw me and of course they recognized me and said,

Now quit worrying, General.

We'll take care of this thing for you.

That kind of, of a thing was a good feeling.

Yeah.

And what I really appreciated about that interview, and we'll talk

about this more, what, what he What he says is important to him.

So he has two sons, and his first son, Daud, which is his wife's maiden name,

is born a year after they're married.

And Daud will actually pass away at three years old from scarlet fever.

Eisenhower is reluctant to ever discuss his death.

And that is when I talked about the place of meditation where

Eisenhower was buried with his wife.

Their son is also buried there.

Son was initially buried in Denver.

Colorado, but when they're both interred there in Abilene, Kansas,

they reinterred their son with them.

And we have a second son, John, who's born in 1922, and he graduates

from West Point on D Day, 1944.

And that's what Eisenhower says he remembers, right?

I remember D Day, but I remember thinking of the young men who are doing this,

who are actually in this operation.

And I think of my son, because it's not, he's so tied.

to it.

Not only is he ordering men to this fight, his son is going

to be a part of this fight.

And this is his only surviving child.

So it's for me, I just, it says a lot about the man that that's

what he remembers about that day.

And the quote that I really love, like, when you think that this is

happening in 1944, and you're going to actually get the surrender of Germany

in May of A month later, he's going to give the quote, The proudest thing I

can claim is that I am from Abilene.

He says that in June of 1945.

So, a month after the, the German surrender for World War II, that's the

proudest thing he's, to me, it just says a lot about the character of the man.

And so, to be in Abilene, Kansas, and see That place that he's proud

of, to see where he's really tethered and anchored, it does say a lot about

who he is, and I appreciated being there, and being a part of that.

Yeah, hearing his perspective in that interview, and it was a 90 minute

interview, and I didn't end up watching the whole thing, I tried to find some

of the interesting bits for our video.

But hearing his perspective on what he thought about, like you said,

his son graduating from West Point on D Day, the day that this is

happening, and he basically says,

Walter, this D Day has a very special meaning for me.

My mind goes back so often to this fact.

On D Day, my own son graduated from West Point.

And uh, after his...

Training, uh, with his division, he came over with the 71st Division, but

that was some time after this event.

But on the very day he was graduating, these men came here.

British, and our other allies, Americans.

To storm these beaches, for one purpose only.

Not to gain anything for ourselves.

Not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest.

But just to preserve freedom.

They're not doing it for themselves, they're not doing it for

glory, they're doing it for freedom.

Yes.

And just kind of hearing that perspective from him, again this was

20 years after the fact, right, so 64.

Yes.

Um, was...

really moving watching that.

And so I, again, I highly encourage you to kind of go watch our video

because that's a really neat piece of that interview to kind of hear

directly from the man himself.

I wanted to bring up some other things about.

Eisenhower as well He will be the 34th president of the

united states from 1953 to 1961.

So he's the president right after truman Right after world war ii and

then jfk is going to be after him.

So you think we have like it's kind of like Out with the old and with

the new with JFK, but him and JFK actually got along very well and Eisen

Eisenhower is a two term president 1953 to 1961 so you think eight years

he's president of the United States.

I There's a lot of opinions about Eisenhower and maybe some follies that

he had but the two things I really remember about his presidency for

me Is the Civil Rights of 1957, when he, uh, brought the army troops in to

enforce the federal orders to integrate Little Rock, Kansas, or Arkansas?

Little Rock, Arkansas.

To me, that said a lot about the man.

Plus, we were in Newport, Rhode Island, at the house that he was playing

golf at when he grabbed the phone and called in the federal troops.

Yeah, he was playing golf on the golf course when he was here and like, They're

creating a ruckus down there and he's like, okay, I'm not dealing with this.

Federal troops are going to go in and get these kids into the school.

Wow.

So he's like doing this on the golf course, which he got a lot

of criticism for the golf and then, um, the interstate system.

So we were on the interstate system stopping to see Eisenhower when

Eisenhower really is the one who started the interstate system in America.

And it's, you know, it's officially known as the Eisenhower Internate System.

Interstate system.

And for him, he saw the importance of the autobahn in Germany and how

much it really connected the country that he came back to America and

installed that here in our country.

So those are the two things I really think of when I think of

the Eisenhower Presidency, the Eisenhower, uh, Gettysburg Ranch.

Yes.

So we have a video from

there.

We do.

That was actually our first video on him, was you going out there

and doing that.

Yes.

So, there's other things that we've kind of connected ourselves with Eisenhower.

They've had this ranch outside of Gettysburg, because

again, he's trained there.

He likes the area.

It's close to DC.

It's close enough.

And maybe as a military spouse has never had a home where she can display

The things they buy from different countries or the place they're

stationed and she, we totally get that.

We totally get that.

So she asked for a place where we can have that even if we're still moving,

because this is before he becomes president, we can come back to and I can.

Have a house that I can decorate so 1950 they buy this ranch right

outside of Gettysburg I mean, it's like literally adjacent to the

battlefield and the National Park Service takes care of it today So

it's like you can visit Gettysburg Visitor Center and they'll say oh, this

is Gettysburg The Eisenhower Ranch.

It's open today, too.

You can take a bus over from there.

So 1950 they buy this farm Gettysburg farm, uh, and it's their retreats,

even when he's in office as president.

So when he comes into the presidency, they will go to the

Gettysburg farm as a retreat.

And as a result, Khrushchev will visit them there, Churchill will

visit them there, Nixon, his vice president visits, visits him there.

Reagan visits

him there.

There's a lot of footage of that.

Yeah.

So I put some of that footage.

Um, I think in the.

Gettysburg farm, you know, his, his Gettysburg estate video.

I put the video of Churchill it, there's video of him and Churchill driving

around on his farm, you know, showing off his cows because that's, you said

in the video, that's what he liked.

He liked to do.

He liked to show people.

It

was breeding system.

It was, it was really, really neat.

And I can see, especially in that area, right.

It's so open and so green.

It's a beautiful area out there, out there in Gettysburg.

I can see why they would want to settle down

there.

So kind of reminds me of the boyhood home.

Yep.

So here's the boyhood home that his family has lived in pretty much their whole life

since he's eight until his mother passes away and it goes to National Park Service.

So here's the farm, the Gettysburg farm that they will

live in after his presidency.

They will go and retire to that farm.

They, that's where they spend the rest of their years until Ike dies

and then maybe stays there until she dies and the very next year the

National Park Service will open it up.

Well, and I believe, and you mentioned this in the Gettysburg

video, that he is the reason for it.

That Camp David isn't too far from there, right?

The Camp David that all the presidents kind of go to to retreat.

It's named after his grandson.

His grandson.

So it used to be called Shangri La.

And then he called it Camp David after his grandson, and it's

still called Camp David today.

Yeah.

And that's Eisenhower's grandson.

Yeah.

And it's been, it was neat, too, that some of the comments that we got on

this video because some of our audience, you know, like you said, everybody's

got different opinions, but some of our audience, you know, remember.

him being around.

Mm hmm.

And so some of them reached out.

Like I think Able, she comments on our videos all the time and she

talks about like, and she actually had like a personal experience

with him when she was a young girl.

Mm hmm.

Um, and so she, they were watching some debate her and her grandmother

or her mother or something like that.

And the.

She was close enough where, I guess, there were the people who were debating

or other people in the political parties around were kind of taken with her

mother, her grandmother, whoever it was.

And the president, and she was close enough to the president, the president

kind of like said hello to her because she was the same age as, as his grandson.

Yes.

And so she, she was very polite and, you know, said hello back and he just

kind of, you know, pat her on the head.

And then he, she watched the proceedings like with the president,

you know, right, right there.

So it.

And then, uh, I think Rick was someone else who comments

on our videos a fair amount.

And he brought up, like you said, some of the follies in his opinion,

some of the things they did with bringing, uh, bringing down, you

know, certain dictators around the world, right, that led to future

events and this, that and the other.

So it's always going to be opinions one side or the other.

Absolutely.

Um, but even Rick said he still sees them as.

Number three.

Oh, yeah.

Top three.

I

mean, I think his example was the interstate highway system.

He said he'd used President Eisenhower had used the CIA to depose Prime

Minister Mohamed Mozaddiq, um, to overthrow and consolidate the

rule of Mohamed Reza Pahlavi.

And And so bringing down that person actually kind of cleared the way for

Ayatollah Khamenei, you know, and then the American Hostage Crisis in 1979.

And then the Iran Revolution.

Right.

And nobody can foresee that.

You can't foresee that.

You can't foresee that.

So, but it, everything has a, has a cause and effect.

It

does.

But Eisenhower was so respected, just like you said, that even JFK, Bay of Pigs is,

he still consults with Eisenhower, right?

And, cause Eisenhower is.

a military man.

And we talked about this in my video.

Someone tries to correct me and says, don't call him General Eisenhower,

call him President Eisenhower.

People like to be referred to as the highest rank they ever had.

Yes, except for Eisenhower, because Eisenhower actually asked.

The standing president who was John F.

Kennedy, can you, can you put my name back to General Eisenhower instead

of President Eisenhower, I would like to be considered a general.

And JFK didn't understand that request, but he did it because even

though JFK is a military man himself.

But he doesn't rise to the rank of five star general and you know, there are

five five star generals And if you can remember, you know, it's Brady, Marshall,

Arnold, MacArthur and Eisenhower And so when you're one of five you can imagine

you want to be remembered as that Because you're not one of five presidents, right?

You're forty something now, but His statue in Abilene, Kansas is him in uniform and

we talked a little bit about the jacket He's wearing from the army is even today

referred to as an Eisenhower jacket.

Yep, the Ike jacket.

So you don't even like I really didn't put two together when two and two

together when I was in the military You know grab your Eisenhower.

Where's my Eisenhower?

Like you just know that's what the jacket is called But I never really

thought it's because of President Eisenhower and President Eisenhower

or General Eisenhower is actually buried in full military uniform.

Yeah,

you do, you do talk about that.

And, um, again, I think that really speaks to the man that, that

we got to briefly visit, right?

To briefly visit his, his home smack in the middle of Kansas, Abilene, Kansas.

I just, it just kind of made me smile the whole time to see this kind of

true American story of someone who came from You know, not much means, right?

They moved from Texas to Kansas for whatever reason it was.

It's not like there was much there in Kansas back in the day.

There was no presidential library there because there was

no president from there yet.

And here he was kind of made his way up through West Point all the way

up to five star general eventually president and settled down after that.

So it was really, really neat to, to visit him and to, to see that and to

kind of walk his footsteps, put that in a video and share that with everybody.

So for those listening, thank you for listening to this podcast, our

first episode on our road trip series.

We really do appreciate it.

Stick around for the next few weeks.

Share this with your friends because we have a whole lot

of Western history coming up.

So we kept going west, you know, after we visited Abilene and

we've got Buffalo Bill Cody.

We've got Wild Bill Hickok and Deadwood and Little Bighorn, all

sorts of fun topics coming up.

If you want to support the show and you enjoy these podcasts, you

can support us at talkwithhistory.

com slash support.

We rely on you, our community, to grow and we appreciate you all.

Every day.

We'll talk to you next time.

Thank you.

There's the coast of Normandy, whose beaches, Gold, Juneau, Sword, Utah,

and Omaha, now live in history.

Along this narrow stretch of sand and sea.

A battle was joined between the world of freedom and the world of tyranny.

For nearly five terror filled years, hundreds of millions

of people lived under the Nazi jackboot that had enslaved Europe.

The Allied troops were fighting to win a foothold at first, and total victory.

And, if possible, to carve out a dream of a world without war.

Twenty years ago, in this, our own time, the largest invasion in history

assaulted Hitler's European fortress.

Beaches were beachheads then, and the world was at war.

This is the last alerting announcement from Supreme Headquarters,

Allied Expeditionary Force.

General Dwight D.

Eisenhower.

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we

have striven these many months.