Eisenhower comes to life at Olney, MD

The treatment of Gettysburg’s two hometown presidents has always been somewhat imbalanced. The one who slept here overnight and gave a speech has at least six statues in town and is the regular subject of a flood of books, articles, conferences, and plays. The one who lived here for 20 or more years gets two statues and is less often celebrated in his hometown.

But we may get an Eisenhower play soon. Having finished a successful Off-Broadway run, a one-man play that re-examines our 34th president is making a national tour, appearing in Olney, MD, for the month of October. And it may be coming our way.

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“Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground” stars Broadway stalwart John Rubinstein. It is set at Eisenhower’s Gettysburg, PA, farm and takes place in 1962. As the show opens, The New York Times has just released the first-ever set of presidential rankings, and Ike isn’t happy. Among the 31 presidents that have been ranked, Eisenhower comes in near the bottom, at 22.

Particularly galling, he’s been assigned, along with Madison and Grant, to a category of “great Americans but not great presidents,” Those in his “mediocre” class were considered, “content to leave well enough alone, or unwilling to fight,” and ( this particularly irritated him) “for their programs, or were inept at doing so.”

Ike uses the occasion to reflect on his career, on leadership, and on democracy.

Rubinstein is a superb Eisenhower. Holding a stage by yourself with what amounts to two 40 minute monologues would challenge any actor. The performance is smooth and seems almost effortless. Rubinstein reviews some familiar and some not-so-familiar incidents in Eisenhower’s life: his early military career, his frustration at being assigned to lead a tank training school in Gettysburg during WWI rather than going to Europe, the death of his first son, working as an aide to General MacArthur (“I had the greatest regard for his military achievements. But that was nothing compared to the regard he had for them.”).

World War II and supreme command of the Normandy invasion, the lonely decision to go, the invasion-eve visit to the 101st Airborne, and the “just in case” letter in his pocket accepting all the blame, are all brought to light.

The play’s second act focuses mostly on the presidential years, necessarily a messier and more complex affair than military command. Ike notes his accomplishments – he created NASA, ended the Korean War, fought for civil rIghts at Little Rock, finished the job of desegregating the Army, began the interstate highway system – and acknowledges some mistakes, including the U-2 incident and failing to defend George Marshall when Joe McCarthy trained his sights on him.

Throughout, Ike/Rubenstein conducts a master class on leadership (“real leadership isn’t throwing your weight around. It’s getting somebody to do something because they want to do it.”)

At times, the playwright appears to be glancing at the present day, with references to Senator Robert Taft and the isolationist wing of the party, Holocaust Denial, conservatives with an excessive fondness for autocratic rulers, even book-banning. But the play remains firmly grounded in 1962 and in Ike’s character.

Growing up in the “I like Ike” years, I’ve had an image of the smiling grandfather which I’ve never quite shaken, even as my understanding of Eisenhower’s depths and subtlety grew. A few years ago, I took a walking tour of Gettysburg’s Harman Farm (old country club) property. The guide pointed at one of the houses on Country Club Ln. and said it was the house where Ike’s aide lived. He added, when the round was going badly, Ike would stomp off the course, sit down on his aide’s patio, and have a drink or two, then finish his round after he had cooled down. I liked that story.

Similarly, in both the Army and the presidency, many contemporaries of Eisenhower’s trivialized his skills, dismissing him as an amiable mediocrity, someone who succeeded because “nobody disliked him; he got along with everyone.” This was the prevailing view at the time that presidential ranking came out. Historians’ regard for him has risen considerably in recent years.

Playwright Richard Helleson, director Peter Ellenstein, and “Ike” John Rubinstein have done an excellent job of bringing that new, more complex Eisenhower to the stage.

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Leon Reed, freelance reporter, is a former US Senate staff member, defense consultant, and history teacher. He is a 10 year resident of Gettysburg, where he writes military history and explores the park and the Adams County countryside. He is the publisher at Little Falls Books, chaired the Adams County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and is on the board of SCCAP. He and his wife, Lois, have 3 children, 3 cats, and 5 grandchildren.

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