George Will has chosen today to address two different upcoming events related to former President Eisenhower.
First, he grouses about the memorial that's in the planning stages, with a design by renowned architect Frank Gehry. In true conservative fashion, he dislikes it because the proposed design is not strictly representational à la Norman Rockwell. I'm not too worried about the design of the memorial, so I find the main truth Will has to offer on this topic is a point he makes sarcastically: "cancel the memorial."
There are too many such memorials in Washington. If our young country continues the me-too trend of a memorial for every President, we'll soon run out of places to put them. We already have, in fact. Besides, the current fever of memorialization has a strong political content, which began with Repubicans wanting to honor Reagan (with an airport and - rather ironically - with a huge federal government office building) as the guy who temporarily resuscitated their political fortunes. (True, there was a similar fever for Kennedy; but Kennedy, I recall, was assassinated in office, so we went overboard although he was not one of our "great" Presidents. Then we relaxed for a generation.)
On the other hand, I believe Will has a point in arguing that Eisenhower's accomplishments are not sufficiently appreciated. That's why I have been hunting around on the internet lately, looking for a good one-volume biography covering Eisenhower's whole life. I wasn't impressed by those that exist, so I'm hopeful that the new book being published this week, and touted by Will -- Eisenhower in War and Peace, by a prolific writer of biographies, Jean Edward Smith -- might fill the bill. I look forward to reading it.
("Eisenhower in War and Peace" can be ordered from amazon.com via the link in the right-hand margin, and Morning Fog will even get a little "cut" from it.)
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