3. Bibliography

3.4. Ike & Maime, The Story of the General and his Lady

Author:  Lester David and Irene David

Publisher: Academic Press

Copyright Dates: 1981

ISBN:  0-399-12644-9

Number of Pages:  288 plus: Index, Appendix A: Where They Lived, Appendix B: Favorite Eisenhower Recipes.

The Book

This book is a flattering and very personal account of the lives of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife Maime Doud Eisenhower.  It is heavy on descriptions of how Maime dressed and decorated her homes and light on information about the Eisenhower administrations. Original research based on interviews done by the authors adds interest and authenticity to the details. Three chapters are devoted to Kay Summersby and her alleged affair with Eisenhower.

Anecdotes from Early in the Eisenhowers' Military Career

Eisenhower's was stationed at a base near San Antonio where he lived with Maime in a tiny house on the base.  Then he was transferred to  Leon Springs, only 30 miles from San Antonio, but  where there were no accommodations for family and the distance was too far for commuting.  Maime was missing her husband, and he had no way to get to her, so she decided to visit him.  They had a 1912 Pullman roadster, a gift from her father, which she had never driven.  She knew how to drive her family's electric car, so what could be the problem?  It was easy to get to Leon Springs by road, so she phoned Ike to tell her she was coming and where to meet her.   She started early, asked a soldier to start the car for her and off she went, bouncing in and out of roadside ditches until she got used to the steering.  Ike, waiting, finally saw the car coming.  As she drew opposite him she yelled, "Ike! Get on quickly--I don't know how to stop this thing!"

Later, Ike had just been promoted to command a base near Baltimore and the Secretary of War announced he was coming for a visit. This was the first such VIP visit they had dealt with, so while the General was out  getting the camp ready for inspection, Maime prepared their house.  Unexpectedly, Secretary Baker showed up at the house before Ike returned.  Maime greeted him pleasantly and Baker, making conversation, asked "What does your husband do best?"  "He plays an awfully good game of poker," she replied.

The Question of Kay Summersby

During Eisenhower's tenure in Europe during World War II, there were rumors romantically linking the General with Kay Summersby, a member of his personal staff who performed driving and secretarial duties. However, there was no real evidence of the nature of their relationship until 1973 when a book of interviews with Harry Truman was published.  In the book Plain Speaking (published after Truman's death), Truman claimed that after the war ended, Ike wrote his commander George Marshall saying that he wanted to be relieved from duty so he could divorce Maime and marry Summersby. According to Truman, Marshall denied the request in "blistering" terms, telling Ike he better forget the idea "or else."  Truman said also that before he left office he obtained the letters from the Pentagon where they were kept and destroyed them.

In 1976 Ms. Summersby herself published a book Past Forgetting, My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was rich in detail, including conversations, places visited and vows of love. This book was also published after Ms. Summersby's death, and both books were published after Eisenhower's death in 1969.

In rebuttal, based largely on their own research, the authors make the following points:

1. George Marshall did step in at times when a subordinate's behavior affected his work.  However, when Marshall wrote letters of reprimand in such cases, his tone was stern but not harsh or threatening.  All such letters were kept in a special file in Marshall's office at the Pentagon (even after retirement he had an office there). The letters were never placed in the officers' permanent military record files.  The tone Truman describes Marshall using is very different from his customary one in this sort of case.

2. Colonel C. S. George was Marshall's aide-de-camp at that time and was in sole charge of the special file which was kept in a locked cabinet.  George told the authors that there was no way letters could have been removed without his knowledge and that neither Truman nor anyone else asked for letters or asked him to destroy letters written to or from General Eisenhower.

3. Dr. Forrest C. Pogue spent at least 35 years studying the lives of Marshall and Eisenhower and in particular had many interviews with Marshall.  Marshall never mentioned any correspondence between himself and Eisenhower concerning Kay Summersby.

4. Harry Truman's private diary was not discovered until 1980.  It was a sealed, highly personal document which mentioned Eisenhower many times, but never made a reference to letters or Kay Summersby.

5. At the time of the interview for the Plain Speaking book, Truman was 79 years old and his memory was faulty.  In particular, his description of his meeting with General McArthur on Wake Island in October 1950 differs from that of other witnesses and even differs from his own version from his memoirs published in 1956.

6. Truman carried a grudge against Eisenhower for various reasons.  He had wanted Ike to run for president as a Democrat, but after the General announced his candidacy as a Republican Truman only had critical and unflattering things to say about him.

On Kay Summersby's book they note:

1. It was written while she was dying of cancer and very much in need of money.

2. Her earlier book Eisenhower Was My Boss, her war time memoirs published in 1948, made no mention of any romance with the General.

3. Her executor testified that she has everything Kay possessed when she died, and there were no letters, notes or anything else from Eisenhower.

4. Eisenhower did not live alone during the war.  He shared a house with aides who were usually aware of his whereabouts and activities, and there were guards everywhere.  Romantic episodes described by Summersby could not have taken place in some of the locations she suggests.

And as final points:

1. The General's schedule made almost any unchaparoned extra curricular activity very difficult and aides who were with them both say "there was no sign whatever of a romance."

2. In July, 1944, at a time when Eisenhower's son John had been visiting his father, the General gave Kay and two other staffers a short leave.  Kay returned to the US with John whom he introduced to Maime, among others.  John also mentions that Ike was always trying to get him to come live with him.  If Ike was having an affair, would he want his son around? Would he send his mistress to be introduced to his wife?

Although it is impossible to rule out some intimacy at some time during their working together, the book makes a strong case that there was no long term romantic involvement between General Eisenhower and Ms. Summersby.