One of the most moving documents in American history is also one of the briefest and least known. Written on June 5, 1944, in Dwight D. Eisenhower’s own hand, it reads in its entirety:
Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.
So wrote the supreme allied commander right before D-Day, preparing an advance copy for the possible failure of the invasion the next day. He had ample reason for apprehension: inclement weather, seemingly impregnable German defenses, and the sheer complexity and unprecedented scale of the attack.
Under his direction, the Allies had assembled 7,000 ships and landing craft, manned by 195,000 naval personnel and supported by 13,000 aircraft, to transport 133,000 troops to the beaches of Normandy. There, under unrelenting fire, if they could fight their way through the surf, across the beaches and up the cliffs, they would begin to dislodge the German army from its strongholds, first in France, then beyond, liberating Europe from the tyranny of National Socialism (“Nationalsozialismus”), better known as Nazism.
Thankfully, this largest invasion in human history succeeded. Eisenhower never had to release the statement he’d drafted accepting responsibility for defeat.
But the general never forgot the risk of defeat. In time, he came to see that risk as coming primarily from within, rather than from outside forces — less from the Nazis, the Soviets or any geopolitical foe than from our own human proclivity to tribalism, manifest in the divisiveness spawned from putting party or pressure groups ahead of the quest for common ground.
After returning from Europe, Eisenhower visited Valley Forge and spoke of the darkest days of the American Revolution in the bitter winter of 1777-1778, when the tattered remnants of the Continental Army camped there.
Gen. George Washington was struggling to keep the army intact. His soldiers lacked munitions, clothing, boots and even food, and had gone months without pay. More than a quarter of them died that winter — not from battle, but from disease and exposure. Meanwhile, scurrilous subordinates were scheming to undermine and replace him.
It was there, Ike said, that “the freedom of the American people ... experienced its greatest danger of extinction.” But just as the character and courage of Washington kept the Revolution alive then, Eisenhower expressed his conviction that “worthy disciples” would continue to ensure that the American experiment survived every future threat.
Eisenhower was determined to help create those worthy disciples.
Fast-forward to 1963. Having completed his service as president of the United States, and having been named the most admired man in the world 12 times, Eisenhower was asked in an interview how he was spending his time.
His interest now, he explained, was “to awaken our people to their responsibilities.”
What responsibilities? “We govern ourselves,” Eisenhower said. We study the issues, express our convictions, vote for leaders that “best exemplify that philosophy” and keep ourselves informed. “This is good citizenship.”
It was the rise of “pressure groups that ... stultify the expression of true, informed, intelligently formed public opinion” that concerned him — as he warned: “If government is going to be our servant and not our ruler, every one of us owes it to himself to keep informed, express his convictions emphatically, and not be confused by labels of any kind.”
Eisenhower was again echoing his predecessor, Gen. Washington, who in his farewell address warned us “against the baneful effects of the spirit of party,” which, “unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.”
This “spirit of party,” Washington continued, “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
Washington ensured that our national independence was declared and secured; Eisenhower ensured that it was preserved. As we approach the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, let us embrace their counsel to practice personal independence — independence of thought.
Don’t outsource your thinking to any party, candidate, channel, pundit, faction or label. Instead, study the issues, think for yourself and do your part to ensure that public opinion is “intelligently formed.”
On the 57th anniversary of Eisenhower’s passing (March 28, 1969), he could receive no finer tribute.