Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhowerwas an American politician and general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front. In...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPresident
Date of Birth14 October 1890
CountryUnited States of America
In opposing Communism, we are defeating ourselves if we use methods that do not conform to the American sense of justice.
I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new-one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.
I know something about that war, and I never want to see that history repeated. But, my fellow Americans, it certainly can be repeated if the peace-loving democratic nations again fearfully practice a policy of standing idly by while big aggressors use armed force to conquer the small and weak.
Planning is useless... but the process itself is indispensable.
Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.
Plans are useless, but planning is essential.
Preparing for battle, plans were essential. But once the battle was joined, plans were useless.
'Worry' is a word that I don't allow myself to use.
Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.
Every gun that's made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms...is spending the genius of its scientists, the sweat of its laborers,
Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
That was and still is the great disaster of my life-that lovely, lovely little boy.
I tell this story to illustrate the truth of the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of 'emergency' is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.
Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed, ... My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.