Dwight David Eisenhower: Five-Star General, Supreme Allied Commander and President of the United States. Few people in the history of the world were faced with as many problems with the magnitude faced by the one presented to him. The man who simply preferred to be called “Ike” eventually found the answer to every one of them, but before and even as his solutions were implemented, he did an incredible amount of anxious fretting and worrying about whether or not they would succeed.
These days, it’s hard to find images of Ike where he isn’t either smiling or looking absolutely confident in everything he is doing. But underneath that genial veneer, whether it’s as a U.S. Army general or as the Leader of the Free World, Eisenhower was secretly roiling with doubt, anxiety and uncertainty. The way he dealt with the stress of the job(s) didn’t help much and might have contributed to his seven heart attacks and a stroke.
Sleeplessness
To overcome the stressors of his work, Eisenhower tried to work his way out of it. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he was a brigadier general, Chief of Staff to the Third Army in San Antonio, Texas. A week later, he was at the War Department in Washington, advising Gen. George C. Marshall on what to do in the Pacific. While informing Marshall of how to win the war against Japan, he was working until 10 pm, ignoring illnesses and even reorganizing the entire planning department. He worked day and night to get supplies and aircraft to the soldiers fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. Marshall was so impressed, he promoted Eisenhower and then sent him to England to see how a cross-channel invasion of France was coming and how it could be sped up.
Ike sent in his recommendations, and Marshall again promoted him and told him to implement those recommendations. Within a year, Eisenhower would lead the logistical problems of landing in North Africa and defeating the Nazis. Sicily and Italy would be invaded by the end of 1943 and Ike would be planning for Operation Overlord next. His boss had to order Eisenhower to visit his wife. By this time, Eisenhower was suffering from high blood pressure and insomnia and was sleeping around two hours a night. He made the decision to launch the invasion at 4:15 in the morning on June 5, 1944 and was still awake at 5:30 a.m. the next day, pacing as naval batteries hit German defenses.
Smoking
A lot of people measure their smoking in the number of cigarettes per day. Heavy smokers keep track by the number of packs of cigarettes they smoke every day. Dwight D. Eisenhower smoked so much, his lighter began to show the wear and tear of overuse. Depending on who you ask, the future president was smoking four to six packs a day, pacing as he pondered what to do next, managed the alliance between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union, and generally tried to ensure he had all the ship, supplies, ammunition, and men in the right places to make four amphibious landings over the course of two years – not to mention making sure he had the right generals to lead them.
1940
Made by Ronson
General Eisenhower carried this pocket lighter throughout World War II. A heavy smoker, wear use is evident on the sides. It was presented on the evening of December 14, 1949, to William E. Robinson when the General gave up smoking during a bridge game at the Morningside Heights home at Columbia University. Department of Interior.
He quit smoking in 1948, two years before ascending to the Oval Office, but there’s no doubt he thought about picking the habit back up when world crises hit again and again. He was losing the Space Race, ending the Korean War, containing communism and enforcing civil rights.
Coffee
Eisenhower might have quit smoking at some point, but he never put down a cup of coffee, even after his first heart attack in 1955. Some observers say he drank as many as 20 cups of coffee during the D-Day invasion. Others say that was a lighter day for the future president, as he was known to drink some 24 cups a day. It’s a well-known fact that cigarettes and coffee are great combinations for anyone (anyone who still smokes cigarettes, that is). General and later President Eisenhower would probably argue that pacing around the room was also a good addition.
Eisenhower would die of congestive heart failure, the body’s inability to pump blood, in March 1969, after the aforementioned six heart attacks and a stroke (which came during a cabinet meeting). He wasn’t the only president to suffer cardiovascular problems. Grover Cleveland, Warren Harding, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all had heart trouble – maybe it had something to do with the job.