Dwight Eisenhower’s D-Day Statement | Primary Source Close Reads Explained

0:00 History is full of examples that can teach us how to be better leaders. One of these individuals is Dwight D. Eisenhower. In June 1944, the world had been at war for five long years. Conflict had raged around the world on islands in the Pacific to North Africa, the Italian peninsula, and across Eastern Europe. Nazi forces had occupied the northern coast of France since their conquest in June 1940.

0:24 For four years, German forces had worked to turn the French coast into a fortress. The Allies had spent those years planning an invasion of Europe. While they had seen advances in North Africa and Italy, they knew a complete overthrow of Nazi tyranny would require they landed Northern Europe in March on Germany. Hundreds of thousands of troops, aircraft, ships and tanks were assembled in England.

0:46 The decision to go rested in the hands of Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. There were a limited number of days that the invasion could successfully be made. One of the windows for this invasion was June 4 to 6 1944. With weather bearing down the northern coast of France and across the English Channel, Eisenhower faced a difficult decision.

1:08 Should he launch the invasion or postpone for several weeks, risking the security of the invasion? Ultimately Ike said let’s go and the invasion was launched. On the day of the invasion, Eisenhower released an order of the day that he had been working on for several months. The order starts with the now famous phrase, you are about to embark upon a great crusade for which we have striven these many months.

1:29 Let’s take a close read of this document and see what insights we can gain from Eisenhower’s leadership. In examining how he wrote this speech and why he chose to deliver it the way that he did. Eisenhower began his address by noting who he was talking to. He said soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

1:52 Eisenhower’s, commander of these forces, was speaking directly to the men he was commanding then. His first paragraph is interesting and I think reveals a good bit about Eisenhower’s leadership. He starts with that famous phrase I just noted. You are about to embark upon the great crusade towards which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you

2:15 in company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. So what’s interesting about this paragraph is he uses the word you constantly, says you are about to embark upon the great crusade.

2:36 The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. And then when he does talk about the world, he says in the company with our brave allies and brothers in arms and on other fronts. What Eisenhower doing here is saying that you, the person he’s talking to, are the audience and are the ones that are carrying forward this message and this whole movement.

2:59 So the whole world is behind you, but you, the individual, are the one that is empowered with taking on this great task. This does a couple of things. It makes you as the soldier, the sailor, the airman feel that collective support. But also it’s not putting himself in the center of this. He’s not saying I am leading us to victory, I am doing anything saying

3:22 that you the soldier, you the one that are landing on the invade, that are landing on the beaches of France. You are the one that’s going to be carrying this forward. That’s a really powerful sense of servant leadership. Servant leadership is the idea where you’re putting you’re at the service of those who you are leading. You are helping them to attain what they’re going to attain. You are not trying to do it yourself.

3:42 And Eisenhower is a great example of that. Here he goes on to say, your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. So here he’s saying that the task before you is really challenging. But again, he’s still using that you now he’s going to give some context for what’s led up to this moment. How have you gotten here?

4:04 But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940 and 41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle. Man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in the weapons and munitions of war.

4:26 And placed at our disposal great reserves of train fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. So now here Eisenhower is doing two things. So as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, he is both the general commanding, but he’s also sort of a political figure. He’s bringing together the forces of different nations,

4:47 whether it be Canada, Great Britain, all of these nations from around the world that are assembling to help lead this invasion are all working together. And here he’s both noting their contributions, noting the contributions of the home front for those who are going to be reading this speech that he knows is going to go public. They can read that at home and they can see themselves in this. So he’s helping to build that political support behind this.

5:10 But he is also saying this is not the same Germany that was fought in France in June of 1940. This is a weakened Germany that we’ve been working to fight and working to defeat and that together we have come a long way towards making that happen and so have confidence as we move toward the invasion. So again, as a servant leader, he’s trying to empower these soldiers,

5:32 empower those people that are going to be doing this with this speech. It’s inspiring to them, but they’re already going. The inspiration there is supposed to help them see who they are within this great massive armada that’s going to be moving forward. And this then shapes how the public perceives it and how history would perceive it moving forward.

5:53 One other thing that’s really important to note here is he’s talking about the Nazi tribes. He’s putting front and center the idea that the Nazis are the ones that we’re fighting and that it’s the Nazi tyranny that we’re overcoming. And this idea that the Nazis are the ones that we’re fighting is showing who the target is. It’s this Nazi regime that is trying to be overthrown and that is something that he really wants to emphasize and he points to.

6:14 So he concludes with these two sentences. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck and let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. Here is the only place where Eisenhower mentions himself, says, I have full confidence in your courage.

6:35 He is their leader. He is the one that has set up this invasion. He’s overseen its planning. He’s the one that’s saying let’s go and go under the invasion. But here he’s doing it by giving confidence to those soldiers who are the ones that are the actual ones that are executing it. And in saying, we will all accept nothing less than full victory, he’s saying, look, we’re going in.

6:56 This is what we’re aspiring to do, is this full victory, this invasion of Europe, this turning of the tide of defeating Nazi Germany once and for all. And he’s laying out that expectation, but he’s doing so in a way that’s empowering his soldiers. So one other thing that’s really interesting about this is that while Eisenhower made this speech or he gave this address, he had it pre recorded until it was out on the radio, but it was also delivered to the soldiers on DDay.

7:20 He also recorded a message in case of failure. So that message says simply this our landings in the Sherborghavra area have failed to gain satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time in place was based upon the information, the best information available. The troops, the air and the navy did all

7:40 that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone. So here you see the other side of Eisenhower. He is empowering the soldiers to go be the ones that are doing the invading of France. He knows that it’s them who are putting their boots on the sand and the ones that are going ashore in case of failure. He’s taking the blame upon himself and saying that I am the one that failed.

8:03 I made the decision to go. I was leading these plans, and they failed. And it is my fault. That is taking personal leadership and is a good example of what it means to both be brave and courageous in making the decision, but also in taking responsibility in what it means when there is failure that occurs. And a good leader of a coalition like this

8:25 has to be in a position where they’re able to do that. Otherwise, they find themselves in a place where they’re making decisions based on their own needs and desires and not those of the collective whole and what is going to be best for all. So I hope you can see in the speech something of Eisenhower’s leadership. Eisenhower obviously had a long career, both in the military and later in the presidency. We’ve done a few other looks at his

8:46 different speeches that he’s given while he was president and at other times. But Eisenhower is one of these people that we look to in history because his example is one not without its failings and not without its challenges, but it’s certainly one where he is working to try to attain a level of leadership that is empowering other individuals, that recognizes them as the individuals that they are and tries to meet them with the words and with the ideas

9:10 and with the shaping of a narrative that they can find themselves and attach themselves to that can be so inspiring to groups of people. So I hope you’ve enjoyed taking this close look at D-Day at Eisenhower’s D-Day speech. It’s been 79 years since that invasion this year. We’re going to continue to take a look at different examples of leadership throughout the summer. So I hope you’ll come back and take a look as we look at other speeches and try

9:32 to understand more of what those speeches can tell us about the different kinds of leaders that we’ve had throughout American history. So thank you so much for joining, and we’ll see you next time. Wow, I didn’t know history was so relevant. Kind of makes you think. Think what? That you definitely have to subscribe to the Bill of Rights Institute’s YouTube channel. They have so many videos on American

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