Eisenhower and Peace

From the 100 Days blog at the NYT, some thoughts on what we might learn from Eisenhower's approach to Korea.

Before his nomination he visited Korea, and while he had campaigned on victory and unification, he returned convinced that peace negotiations were the only realistic approach. As Jean Edward Smith tells it

Ike spent three days in Korea. He conferred with his old friends, Gen. Mark Clark and Gen. James Van Fleet, talked to division and regimental commanders, and ate C-rations at the front with G.I.’s from the 15th Infantry — Eisenhower’s old regiment. Most significantly, he flew along the battle line, roughly the 38th Parallel, in an artillery observation plane (the military equivalent of a Piper Cub) for a good look at the terrain . . .[and] he returned to the United States determined to make peace.

It is particularly telling the Ike pursued peace over the heads of his most senior advisors as well as leaders in congress. In a speach where he made his intentions public, he declared

Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are notclothed….A world that begins to witness the rebirth of trust among nations can find its way to a peace that is neither partial nor punitive…. The first great step along this way must be the conclusion of an honorable armistice in Korea.

A particularly poignant sentiment for Easter Sunday. Because he had experienced the true horrors of war, Eisenhower was able to understand the precious value of peace and pursued it tenaciously despite opposition. When peace was achieved, quite quickly as it turned out,

Eisenhower ignored the criticism. “The war is over,” he told press secretary James Hagerty. “I hope my son is going to come home soon.”

Would that our Canadian generals' bellicose statements in the lead up to the Afghan mission have been tempered by the same understanding and compassion.