{"id":189926,"date":"2025-06-03T07:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T12:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=189926"},"modified":"2026-09-06T17:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:05:55","slug":"podcast-1071-the-making-of-a-supreme-commander-how-eisenhower-became-the-leader-who-delivered-victory-on-d-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-1071-the-making-of-a-supreme-commander-how-eisenhower-became-the-leader-who-delivered-victory-on-d-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,071: The Making of a Supreme Commander \u2014 How Eisenhower Became the Leader Who Delivered Victory on D-Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>That Dwight D. Eisenhower became Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, orchestrating the largest amphibious invasion in history on June 6, 1944, was far from inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>He came from the middle of nowhere \u2014 Abilene, Kansas \u2014 had never led men in battle, spent most of his career as a staff officer, and didn\u2019t make general until he was in his fifties.<\/p>\n<p>How, then, did he become the leader on whom the fate of the world would rest?<\/p>\n<p>Today, we trace the making of Ike with Michel Paradis, author of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4knqadb\"><em>The Light of Battle<\/em><\/a>. We talk about how Eisenhower\u2019s Midwestern upbringing shaped his character, and how his most important education happened outside the classroom. Michel shares how crucial mentors were in Ike\u2019s development, and how Eisenhower made the most of those relationships. We discuss the books that were most formative in shaping his thinking, including what he got from Nietzsche. We also get into some of the practices Eisenhower used to lead effectively, including how he budgeted his time to maintain his morale while under the pressure of planning D-Day and what he did the evening before the invasion to deal with the stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That Dwight D. Eisenhower became Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, orchestrating the largest amphibious invasion in history on June 6, 1944, was far from inevitable. He came from the middle of nowhere \u2014 Abilene, Kansas \u2014 had never led men in battle, spent most of his career as a staff officer, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1071-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1071-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1071-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1071-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1071-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Podcast #1,071: The Making of a Supreme Commander \u2014 How Eisenhower Became the Leader Who Delivered Victory on D-Day | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-1071-the-making-of-a-supreme-commander-how-eisenhower-became-the-leader-who-delivered-victory-on-d-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,071: The Making of a Supreme Commander \u2014 How Eisenhower Became the Leader Who Delivered Victory on D-Day | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That Dwight D. Eisenhower became Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, orchestrating the largest amphibious invasion in history on June 6, 1944, was far from inevitable. 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Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-1071-the-making-of-a-supreme-commander-how-eisenhower-became-the-leader-who-delivered-victory-on-d-day\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-1071-the-making-of-a-supreme-commander-how-eisenhower-became-the-leader-who-delivered-victory-on-d-day\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett &amp; 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