I like Ike

[54light15]

Didn't they call it an "Ike" jacket back in Big Two? Stylish, wasn't it? Who started that style?

There are several uniforms that will always look spiffy and they are:

Royal Canadian Mounted Police scarlet jacket and Stetson hat.

U.S.M.C. dress blues.

U.S. Naval aviator dress greens with brown shoes.

the 1940 R.A.F. uniform- hell, it's probably a standard RAF uniform but still, who was more cool then a Spitfire jockey?

London police department with that ultra-cool helmet, the "Bobby" uniform.

There's probably more, but give Ike credit being stylish. What else was stylish? The 1953 Cadillac Eldorado convertible he rode in during one parade or another. Try doing that today.

 

 

[wanswheel]

Excerpt from GM Media

In 1938, two Cadillac convertibles, dubbed the "Queen Mary" and "Queen Elizabeth," were delivered to the U.S. government. Named after the great ocean liners of the time, the vehicles were 21.5 feet long, weighed 7,660 pounds each and were equipped with a small arsenal, two-way radios and heavy-duty generators. Durable and reliable, the two "Queens" served Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

President Eisenhower, a noted car enthusiast, rode in one of the first Cadillac Eldorado models ever produced during his 1953 inaugural parade. The Eldorado represented a high point in automobile design history, as it had the first wraparound windshield, a feature quickly adopted on other production models.

[NKP guy]

54light15:    What about "a Roxy usher"?    (See for reference Cole Porter's "You're the top")

P.S.   Can wanswheel, as usual, help us out with a photo of a Roxy usher?

 

 

[wanswheel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njzqv5gWt6k&t=3m2s

[garyla]

schlimm

I have a vague memory of walking with my first grade class to see Ike on a "Whistlestop" tour in downtown Wheaton in 1952.    A great president; we need that sort of leadership today, though sadly he probably would not get the nomination from today's GOP.

 

Probably true.  At the same time, I can't imagine the Democratic Party nominating a JFK again.  His campaign positions on defense and his Inaugural speech just wouldn't fly today.

[BaltACD]

No matter the party - the political positions they held 60 - 70 years ago do not apply to today's world.  The world has changed.

[wanswheel]

In 1948, future famous movie director Stanley Kubrick was a young photographer taking pictures of the president of Columbia University. I wonder if Ike ever watched Dr. Strangelove or remembered meeting Kubrick.

https://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Highlights/Stanley%20Kubrick/

 

Excerpt from The New Yorker, January 18, 2014

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true

This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy about nuclear weapons, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Released on January 29, 1964, the film caused a good deal of controversy. Its plot suggested that a mentally deranged American general could order a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, without consulting the President. One reviewer described the film as “dangerous … an evil thing about an evil thing.” Another compared it to Soviet propaganda. Although “Strangelove” was clearly a farce, with the comedian Peter Sellers playing three roles, it was criticized for being implausible. An expert at the Institute for Strategic Studies called the events in the film “impossible on a dozen counts.” A former Deputy Secretary of Defense dismissed the idea that someone could authorize the use of a nuclear weapon without the President’s approval: “Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth.”  When “Fail-Safe”—a Hollywood thriller with a similar plot, directed by Sidney Lumet—opened, later that year, it was criticized in much the same way. “The incidents in ‘Fail-Safe’ are deliberate lies!” General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff, said. “Nothing like that could happen.” The first casualty of every war is the truth—and the Cold War was no exception to that dictum. Half a century after Kubrick’s mad general, Jack D. Ripper, launched a nuclear strike on the Soviets to defend the purity of “our precious bodily fluids” from Communist subversion, we now know that American officers did indeed have the ability to start a Third World War on their own. And despite the introduction of rigorous safeguards in the years since then, the risk of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation hasn’t been completely eliminated.

The command and control of nuclear weapons has long been plagued by an “always/never” dilemma. The administrative and technological systems that are necessary to insure that nuclear weapons are always available for use in wartime may be quite different from those necessary to guarantee that such weapons can never be used, without proper authorization, in peacetime. During the nineteen-fifties and sixties, the “always” in American war planning was given far greater precedence than the “never.” Through two terms in office, beginning in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower struggled with this dilemma. He wanted to retain Presidential control of nuclear weapons while defending America and its allies from attack. But, in a crisis, those two goals might prove contradictory, raising all sorts of difficult questions. What if Soviet bombers were en route to the United States but the President somehow couldn’t be reached? What if Soviet tanks were rolling into West Germany but a communications breakdown prevented NATO officers from contacting the White House? What if the President were killed during a surprise attack on Washington, D.C., along with the rest of the nation’s civilian leadership? Who would order a nuclear retaliation then?

With great reluctance, Eisenhower agreed to let American officers use their nuclear weapons, in an emergency, if there were no time or no means to contact the President. Air Force pilots were allowed to fire their nuclear anti-aircraft rockets to shoot down Soviet bombers heading toward the United States. And about half a dozen high-level American commanders were allowed to use far more powerful nuclear weapons, without contacting the White House first, when their forces were under attack and “the urgency of time and circumstances clearly does not permit a specific decision by the President, or other person empowered to act in his stead.” Eisenhower worried that providing that sort of authorization in advance could make it possible for someone to do “something foolish down the chain of command” and start an all-out nuclear war. But the alternative—allowing an attack on the United States to go unanswered or NATO forces to be overrun—seemed a lot worse. Aware that his decision might create public unease about who really controlled America’s nuclear arsenal, Eisenhower insisted that his delegation of Presidential authority be kept secret. At a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he confessed to being “very fearful of having written papers on this matter.”

[schlimm]

WANSWHEEL:  Another great post.  But looking at the forums, there is increasingly a paucity of railroad posts.   I wonder why?

[tree68]

schlimm

But looking at the forums, there is increasingly a paucity of railroad posts.   I wonder why?

It goes through cycles.  

Then something happens and things get busy again.  Other forums go through the same thing.

Perhaps part of the blame is the relative lack of variety in railroading today.  With just seven Class 1's, there is a lot of consistency coast-to-coast.  That makes "this is how my railroad does it, how does yours do it?" a lot less common.

And some topics have been beat to a pulp or arouse such emotions in people that they simply aren't discussed any more.

Too, the folks who remember how it was are getting scarcer.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

54light15

Didn't they call it an "Ike" jacket back in Big Two? Stylish, wasn't it? Who started that style?

I used to wear Dad's Eisenhower every now and again while I was in high school after Dad stopped wearing it.  I passed it along to my younger brother when I outgrew it.

Dad told us that the Eisenhower jacket was NOT a standard issue.  You would buy an extra blouse out of your uniform allowance and take it to a tailor to be altered.  He recalled that some of them had pretty fancy inside linings depending on the taste of that airman/soldier.

[Murphy Siding]

NKP guy

Murphy Siding:    You might be very interested to read what President Truman wrote about Dwight Eisenhower's behavior toward Gen. Marshall during the McCarthy era. I'm afraid that, when given a chance to speak out against McCarthy's outrageous claims & lies about Gen. Marshall, Mr. Eisenhower fell absolutely silent.

Not very leadership-like. 

 

 

  Perhaps, but don't you think the fact that Truman and Eisenhower were from opposing political parties colored some of Truman's opinions?  And Lord knows Harry had some opinions.....

[NKP guy]

  

Here's what Joe McCarthy said about Gen. George C. Marshall in the early 1950's:

     ("General Marshall)... having made common cause with Stalin" in "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any such venture in the history of man," and other such reckless and untrue charges.

Mr. Eisenhower soon thereafter shared a stage with Sen. McCarthy and declined to reply to or comment on McCarthy's outrageous lies.  Eisenhower kept silent; after all, Joe McCarthy was an important fellow-Republican.

Considering that Eisenhower was Gen. Marshall's right-hand man since at least 1932 and, in fact, made Eisenhower's career for him, Harry Truman thought it was awful that Eisenhower wouldn't rise to Marshall's defence, especially given the position Ike was in on that stage.  How would any of us feel when one of our best friends wouldn't come to our defence from such a lying bully? 

I can "like Ike" and yet be very disappointed in his failure to speak up for the truth about such a great American patriot and friend of his as Gen. Marshall, especially to the attacks by a half-crazy drunk and fool.  Eisenhower was a fine President, but like all of us he had his flaws and shortcomings.  

So I respect what you said, Murphy Siding, but to me this wasn't about a mere difference of opinion between two political rivals, Eisenhower and Truman.  Harry Truman did have lots of opinions (many of which I share), but he stood up for his friends.

May JoeMcCarthy and his ilk rot in Hell.

 

 

[54light15]

A previous post said it best about Ike not wanting to roll around in the gutter with Simple J. Malarkey. I think he did the right thing, saying nothing while that jerk made a fool of himself. One thing Ike had in spades and that's "class."

[rrnut282]

Wow Schlimm, you're funny.

[samfp1943]

Firelock76

Anyone besides me noticed how good Ikes 1945 uniform looks compared to what the Army's wearing now? 

Army uniforms had a classic look back in those days.  I can't figure out why they got away from it. 

 

Well, at th risk of feeding Schlimm's paucity quota.....The Army lost me when they adopted the felt beanie ; at least they managed to loose the propeller on it, and did not adopt that Boy Scout Award sash lookin thingy. 

   I was still reeling from the USMC taking away our wear-able, steel cooking pots, in favor of a plastic coal scuttle; then in 2013 Obama & Co wanted to make the USMC Dress uniform resemble those of a meter maid. 

See@http://nypost.com/2013/10/23/obama-wants-marines-to-wear-girly-hats/

I am sure that one had Chesty Puller spinning in his grave. 

[Victrola1]

H. L. Mencken's commentary based on riding a presidential campaign train. 

https://books.google.com/books?id=2Q19hMwsNgYC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=Mencken+campaign+train&source=bl&ots=2ZscVEMHL1&sig=uSTmX32O3jgr-Tkl13YWlqD5pbo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBWoVChMIhd-H6Y7AyAIVB-JjCh130Aho#v=onepage&q=Mencken%20campaign%20train&f=false

 

[Victrola1]

The headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Holding the newspaper to the window of plane flying over is not the same as off the back platform of a train at every stop. 

[schlimm]

NKP guy

  

Here's what Joe McCarthy said about Gen. George C. Marshall in the early 1950's:

     ("General Marshall)... having made common cause with Stalin" in "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any such venture in the history of man," and other such reckless and untrue charges.

Mr. Eisenhower soon thereafter shared a stage with Sen. McCarthy and declined to reply to or comment on McCarthy's outrageous lies.  Eisenhower kept silent; after all, Joe McCarthy was an important fellow-Republican.

Considering that Eisenhower was Gen. Marshall's right-hand man since at least 1932 and, in fact, made Eisenhower's career for him, Harry Truman thought it was awful that Eisenhower wouldn't rise to Marshall's defence, especially given the position Ike was in on that stage.  How would any of us feel when one of our best friends wouldn't come to our defence from such a lying bully? 

I can "like Ike" and yet be very disappointed in his failure to speak up for the truth about such a great American patriot and friend of his as Gen. Marshall, especially to the attacks by a half-crazy drunk and fool.  Eisenhower was a fine President, but like all of us he had his flaws and shortcomings.  

So I respect what you said, Murphy Siding, but to me this wasn't about a mere difference of opinion between two political rivals, Eisenhower and Truman.  Harry Truman did have lots of opinions (many of which I share), but he stood up for his friends.

May JoeMcCarthy and his ilk rot in Hell.

 

 

 

Agree.   I like Ike, too.  I think he was one of our better presidents since WWII, but his standing on a platform in WI with a scoundrel like "Tailgunner Joe" was not a profile in courage.

[wanswheel]

Photos and descriptions from Wisconsin Historical Society

President Harry S. Truman and Secretary of State George C. Marshall. After World War II President Truman appointed Marshall as his special emissary to China. In 1947 he summoned the general home and appointed him Secretary of State. Marshall retired in 1949, but returned to public service in 1950 to become Secretary of Defense during the Korean War. Despite his military career, his creation of the Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of Europe, and his Nobel Peace Prize (in 1953) Marshall was bitterly attacked by the right-wing for the fall of China and his protection of Communists such as Alger Hiss and Owen Lattimore in the State Department. In 1951 Joseph R. McCarthy made this theme the subject of his book, "Retreat from Victory, the Story of George C. Marshall."  

Marine Captain Joseph R. McCarthy, later a Wisconsin senator, posing as a tail gunner during World War II in Douglas SBD Bomber. McCarthy was an intelligence officer and he flew along as an observer on several bombing missions. McCarthy spent 16 months in the Solomon Islands, serving two tours from September 1943 to March 1944. He returned to the United States in July 1944, assigned to various California military bases. McCarthy resigned from the Marines on December 11, 1944.

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy waves to the crowd who had come to see him introduce Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower. On the train with him is John Byrnes, Republican congressman from Green Bay.  

Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower and Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy together on the rear car of the "Eisenhower Special." ...By this time, relations between Eisenhower and McCarthy were tense, at least on Eisenhower's part. A few days earlier in Green Bay Eisenhower refused to appear with McCarthy in public. In Milwaukee, however, Eisenhower delivered a speech from which he deleted strong support for General George C. Marshall, one of McCarthy's favorite targets, in an apparent effort not to offend McCarthy's supporters.

[54light15]

A biography I read of McCarthy wrote that the only reason he joined the Marines was that it would make him a better political candidate. He like to pose for photographers in a tent and say to the Marines, "what kind of hell did you give the japs today?" An oppurtunistic piece of something unmentionable. Rot in hell, indeed along with J. Edgar Hoover, Roy Cohn, Bull Connor and other "fine upstanding Americans."

[schlimm]

54light15

A biography I read of McCarthy wrote that the only reason he joined the Marines was that it would make him a better political candidate. He like to pose for photographers in a tent and say to the Marines, "what kind of hell did you give the japs today?" An oppurtunistic piece of something unmentionable. Rot in hell, indeed along with J. Edgar Hoover, Roy Cohn, Bull Connor and other "fine upstanding Americans."

 

+1

Like many pols, Joe McCarthy made up a lot of things to burnish his bio.

[Wiki]  
"He flew twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer, earning the nickname of "Tail-Gunner Joe" in the course of one of these missions. He later claimed 32 missions in order to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross, which he received in 1952. McCarthy publicized a letter of commendation which he claimed had been signed by his commanding officer and countersigned by Admiral Nimitz, then Chief of Naval Operations. However, it was revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, in his capacity as intelligence officer. A "war wound" that McCarthy made the subject of varying stories involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire was in fact received aboard ship during a ceremony for sailors crossing the equator for the first time."

[wanswheel]

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/eisenhower-drives-general/kAEeJgUabUV7Tw?hl=en

“Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, in the cab of the Pennsylvania Railroad's newly re-equipped streamliner, inaugurates its 16-hour run from New York to Chicago. Ike took the train 150 yards down the tracks before handing it over to the regular engineer.”

[garyla]

schlimm

 

NKP guy

  

Here's what Joe McCarthy said about Gen. George C. Marshall in the early 1950's:

     ("General Marshall)... having made common cause with Stalin" in "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any such venture in the history of man," and other such reckless and untrue charges.

Mr. Eisenhower soon thereafter shared a stage with Sen. McCarthy and declined to reply to or comment on McCarthy's outrageous lies.  Eisenhower kept silent; after all, Joe McCarthy was an important fellow-Republican.

Considering that Eisenhower was Gen. Marshall's right-hand man since at least 1932 and, in fact, made Eisenhower's career for him, Harry Truman thought it was awful that Eisenhower wouldn't rise to Marshall's defence, especially given the position Ike was in on that stage.  How would any of us feel when one of our best friends wouldn't come to our defence from such a lying bully? 

I can "like Ike" and yet be very disappointed in his failure to speak up for the truth about such a great American patriot and friend of his as Gen. Marshall, especially to the attacks by a half-crazy drunk and fool.  Eisenhower was a fine President, but like all of us he had his flaws and shortcomings.  

So I respect what you said, Murphy Siding, but to me this wasn't about a mere difference of opinion between two political rivals, Eisenhower and Truman.  Harry Truman did have lots of opinions (many of which I share), but he stood up for his friends.

May JoeMcCarthy and his ilk rot in Hell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree.   I like Ike, too.  I think he was one of our better presidents since WWII, but his standing on a platform in WI with a scoundrel like "Tailgunner Joe" was not a profile in courage.

 

How do you feel about Pres. Obama choosing to socialize with Bill Ayers and the delightful former Bernardine Dohrn? 

[wanswheel]

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

When you consider that there are still a lot of people out there who consider Joseph McCarthy to be a national hero, Eisenhower had to tread very carefully around him to avoid being branded as "weak on Communism".

[Los Angeles Rams Guy]

wanswheel

 

Personally I don't think that things in this country have EVER been the same since that day in Dallas.

 

[wanswheel]

If there’s any interest, Mary Eisenhower spoke a few days ago about her grandfather’s last birthday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjJDDGnLsKM&t=6m17s

[schlimm]

CSSHEGEWISCH

When you consider that there are still a lot of people out there who consider Joseph McCarthy to be a national hero, Eisenhower had to tread very carefully around him to avoid being branded as "weak on Communism".

 

Being intimidated by right wingers and going easy on McCarthy didn't protect Ike from the Bircher attacks on him from Koch Bros. father Fred (a founder) and especially leader Robert Welch in his book, The Politician.  Here is the worst, which was removed from later printings:  "Could Eisenhower really be simply a smart politician, entirely without principles and hungry for glory, who is only the tool of the Communists? The answer is yes." He went on. "With regard to ... Eisenhower, it is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate treason."

[wanswheel]

Excerpt from National First Ladies Library

The 1952 marked the first presidential campaign in which the spouses of a presidential ticket were consciously marketed to women voters as part of a larger effort. Thus along with the Republican effort to enlist housewives as supporters and party volunteer workers by translating political issues into those most women of the era could relate to such as grocery bills or having their sons, husbands sent to the Korean War front, there were also "Mamie for First Lady," "We Want Mamie," and "I Like Mamie Too" buttons (the last one a play on the popular "I Like Ike" slogan). Mamie Eisenhower was an energetic and enthusiastic figure on her husband's 77-stop train tour of the nation, the candidate often finishing a speech by asking a crowd, "How'd you like to meet my Mamie?" a cue for her to appear and wave.

Mamie and Sen. Frank Carlson of Kansas on a New York Central car at Cedar Rapids

[Norm48327]

wanswheel

1952 marked the first presidential campaign in which the spouses of a presidential ticket were consciously marketed to women voters as part of a larger effort.

Do you suppose women would favor Slick Willie for first husband?

Sorry, The Devil made me do it. LOL