John Eisenhower Quotes
Avoiding combat duty was and is an unforgivable sin for a professional soldier.
Eisenhower, John S. D. "A Target in the Ranks." The New York Times, 2 Mar. 2008.
After the American Revolution one of the great fears of many of the political leaders was a standing army. So there was little concern about the morale of the officers and enlisted men. Further, the national government and the governments of the individual states were broke. Washington and Hamilton wanted the soldiers to be paid their back wages and saw this as the highest priority for the new nation. Most others did not agree, and viewed the new military back wages as equal to the many other obligations. Hamilton, saw this as an active hostility to the military and was very overt about his castigation of Congress. Washington agreed but was far more diplomatic and could never accept the fact that the military did not owe loyalty to the nation and the Congress.
Goodpaster served as Staff Secretary and Defense Liaison Officer to President Eisenhower from 1954–1961. McCarthy accused many competent, loyal Americans of disloyalty, incompetence and treason. The reason that this particular quotation was noteworthy was that it particularly offended President Eisenhower and galvanized him into action to stop McCarthy’s excesses. See {632334}.
At the time veterans would have to wait for up to a year till they could get their records and their benefits from the Veterans Administration which had insufficient budget while the Defense Department had as much money as the Military-Industrial complex could lobby for.
John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was a United States Army officer, diplomat, and military historian. He was a son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. His military career spanned from before, during, and after his father's presidency, and he left active duty in 1963 and then retired in 1974. From 1969 to 1971, Eisenhower served as United States Ambassador to Belgium during the administration of President Richard Nixon, who was previously his father's vice president and also his daughter-in-law's father.
