Evening star., 1952-01-13

eral. Nor was his rapid rise over.
Whereas it had taken him 26 years
to get his first star, 1t took only 80
months more to hit the top, with
a five-star rank that hadn't even
been dreamed Of when he was a
cadet at the Point.
People had heard of him In
vague fashion before 1941--usually
as a mSspelled name in q caption
under picture Of Gen. Macarthur
land members of his staff" But he
didn't really become known until
the summer before the war. Then.
as chief Of staff of 1t. Gen. Walter
Krueger's Sd Army, he directed
maneuver strategy and tactics In
the miserable swamps and corn
stubble hills of Western Louisiana.
Press reports bearing such dismal
datelines as "De Ridder, La"
started mentioning "the Sd
Army's 49-year -old chief of staff,
Col. D. D. Eisenhower" II his name
had been Smith it might have been
forgotten. But about this time,
some journalistic etymologist
pointed out that his name was a
corruption Of the German for
"iron-cutter" and speculated that
the name might come to have
melancholy significance for the
people who would best understand
its meaning.
An Aecurots Prophecy
As 1t turned out, the prophecy
was correct; not, Of course, be-
cause Of the name, but because OF
the man who bore 1t.
Gen. Eisenhower came out Of the
war full Of honors rs the soldier
who had won 1t. Actually, however,
his greatest contribution was an al
most uncanny ability to bring to-
gether people of different languages,
different nationalities, different in
terests, and fuse them into q war
winning team.
An anecodote-reliably reported
to be authentic-shows the nature
of this ability.
An American colonel on the,
SHAEF staff had had q run-in with
his British opposite number, and
Gen. Eisenhower decided to send
the colonel back to the States ION
a slow boat, unescorted," as he used
to say.
Before the colonel left, Gen.
Eisenhower told him why. ''I'm not
. shipping you back because you
quarreled with that fellow. I'm not
even sending you back for calling
him an sob. I'm doing 1t because
you called him a Linsey sob"
His demonstrated ability to get
divergent groups to pull in the
same direction has made him the
ideal man for his present job-the
creation of a NATO army in Eu-
rope-a job from which he says he
will not seek relief in order to join
the people who say, II like Ike"
A Personoble Man
This Ike they like is, at 81, a
personable man with an expressive
face called handsome by many con-
noisseurs Of the American male
visage. In physique as in other
attributes, he is a middle of the
roader, neither as tall as Mac
Arthur nor as short as Napoleon;
neither as fat as Winfield Scott nor
as lean as Mark Clark. To be exact,
he Is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs
100 pounds. His grin is infectious,
almost boyish, and is as much a
label of Dwight Eisenhower as the
jutting chin was OF Franklin Roose-
velt.
Almost as If he wished to avoid
being outstanding, he is soldierIy
without being famboyant and COM
radely without being buddy-buddy
His golf game is good enough (high
8Os, low 90s) to keep his foursome
from having to drag its feet. He il
a good man at the bridge table
but not a shark like his European
command chief of stan, Gen. A
Gruenther. His rank would make
him socially acceptable at any one!
party, but those who have attended
functions with him remark on al
easy manner that would make hin