John Walsh

There was a movie on A & E last night entitled Ike: Countdown to D-Day. In it, Tom Selleck, with his hairline altered and in make-up which emphasized his jowls, gave a creditable performance as General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces that landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 to wrest back the European continent from Adolph Hitler and the German Nazis. The movie's focus was on the preparation which went on in England to organize and ...There was a movie on A & E last night entitled Ike: Countdown to D-Day. In it, Tom Selleck, with his hairline altered and in make-up which emphasized his jowls, gave a creditable performance as General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces that landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 to wrest back the European continent from Adolph Hitler and the German Nazis. The movie's focus was on the preparation which went on in England to organize and then launch the greatest invasion in history. Millions of soldiers were to be transported to the beaches of Northern France to assault the fortifications Hitler had built to repel such an effort. Leading those forces was Hitler's best general, Irwin Rommel, the Desert Fox.

There were two major themes presented in the movie. One was to out strategize Rommel to give the invasion forces a chance to gain a foothold on the continent. The other was to show how Ike managed to keep some very volatile characters from upsetting the apple cart. They were Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister; General Monty Montgomery, Britain's most successful general who had defeated Rommel in North Africa and Charles DeGaul, the leader of the Free French Forces. In Churchill's case, while he had agreed with the U. S. President, Franklin Roosevelt, to Ike's appointment as supreme commander, he was resentful of the American's power to manage much of the social and economic life in England. Ike won him over, however, by meeting with him often, man to man, to keep him informed of what was to happen. Ike and Churchill shared a couple of habits. Both liked the occasional glass of scotch whiskey taken neat; and both liked the ritual of lighting up: Winston his long cigars and Ike, who nearly chain smoked, American cigarettes.