Seth Kaller, Inc.

From a limited edition of Eisenhower’s Crusade in Europe, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1948), limited to 1,426 copies. The war had ended only three years earlier, and Eisenhower must have been looking towards politics - he was elected to the Presidency in 1952.

We can have this archivally framed for an additional fee. 

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. Broadside Signed in dark blue ink. Statement to the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force on June 6, 1944. Document is approx. 5¾ x 9½ in.

Inventory #27454       SOLD — please inquire about other items

Transcript

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

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.

Dwight D Eisenhower”

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969).  34^th president of the United States (1953-1961). Eisenhower led the Allied troops in the North African theater against Erwin Rommel, “the Desert Fox,” and later served as the commander of Operation OVERLORD—the D-Day invasion, June 4, 1944.  On May 7, 1945, the Germans surrendered unconditionally to Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, at his headquarters in Reims, France.

Eisenhower ran for president in 1952, and won a sweeping victory.  As president he ended the Korean War in 1953, built up America’s nuclear arsenal, and kept peace while pursuing a policy of containing Communism.  On a number of occasions, he turned down recommendations by members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that he launch a first-strike nuclear attack on the Soviets while the U.S. still had more atomic bombs.  His defense policy, “the New Look,” relied on nuclear deterrence.

Eisenhower was the first president to involve the United States in Middle Eastern politics.  To explain why he supported the Egyptian government against France, Britain, and Israel in the Suez Canal affair, he proclaimed: “We cannot subscribe to one law for the weak, another law for the strong; one law for those opposing us, another for those allied with us. There can be only one law—or there shall be no peace.”

As president, Eisenhower balanced three out of his eight budgets, while expanding Social Security and launching the Interstate Highway System.  During his second term, in response to Arkansas’ refusal to honor the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, he ordered the Arkansas National Guard into federal service, which put it under his orders rather than those of the governor, and sent the 101^st Airborne Division into Little Rock to enforce integration.