BIOGRAPHY – Page 6 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

EISENHOWER

The “Wall Street Journal” calls the Eisenhower monument, “Monumentally Mediocre”. Jean Smith’s interesting biography suggests otherwise.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Eisenhower in War and Peace

Written by: Jean Edward Smith

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

JEAN EDWARD SMITH (AUTHOR, JOHN MARSHALL PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT MARSHALL UNIVERSITY & PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO)

Jean Edward Smith’s biography of Dwight Eisenhower defines the meaning of political leadership. Smith does not show Eisenhower to be a great intellect or military genius. Smith suggests Eisenhower is similar to Ulysses Grant in having come from a modest family to rise to the office of President of the United States.

Like Grant, Eisenhower is shown to be a consummate leader who politically manages and develops people who understand how to get things done. Unlike Grant, Smith shows Eisenhower to be a better President than battlefield commander.

The newly revealed Eisenhower monument in Washington D.C. shows Eisenhower in command of others. It correctly infers Eisenhower is a leader who trusts others to be the best they can be. Eisenhower is not a doer but a manager of others who do.

Eisenhower leads Allied forces on D-Day by using the best battlefield generals of WWII. Smith implies–without the Allied generals’ experience in battle, Eisenhower would likely have failed on D-Day.

Smith notes that Eisenhower had minimal combat experience. The one time Eisenhower directly manages a battle is in Sicily. If it had not been for superior manpower and material, Smith argues Eisenhower would have been defeated. Smith goes on to suggest that British Field General Montgomery is unjustly scapegoated for Eisenhower’s Italian campaign mistakes.

FIELD MARSHAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY (1887-1976, ENGLISH FIELD MARSHAL THAT MATCHED WITS WITH GERMAN FIELD MARSHAL ERWIN ROMMEL)

Smith also notes Montgomery’s role in D-Day is unfairly characterized. Montgomery argues for concentrated forces at critical points in German defenses; while Eisenhower demands a broad frontal attack along the entire front. Eisenhower’s tactics, in some generals’ opinions, prolong the end of the war by six months; i.e. increasing the casualty count and stalling Montgomery’s advance on Omaha Beach.

However, Smith’s biography of Eisenhower shows that military successes and failures make him a perfect political leader.

Smith reveals an inner moral compass that defines Eisenhower’s beliefs and decisions. Eisenhower uses that moral compass to become Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in WWII; and later, President of the United States.

Smith infers, despite tactical failures as a battlefield commander, Eisenhower’s innate ability to get things done through other people make him one of the great twentieth century American Presidents.

EISENHOWER AND SOMERSBY — Eisenhower is no saint. His power as Allied forces’ general leads to the Somersby affair even as Eisenhower professes a deep need and affection for his wife, Mamie.

Smith offers a comprehensive picture of Eisenhower. Eisenhower is no moral saint. His power as Allied forces’ general leads to the Somersby affair even as Eisenhower professes a deep need and affection for his wife, Mamie.

Somersby appears to have been loved by Eisenhower, but she is unceremoniously dumped in a “Dear John” letter when Eisenhower is ordered back to the United States. On the one hand, Smith is showing Eisenhower is human; on the other, Smith is showing the perfidy of men in power positions.

Smith explains Eisenhower’s path to the presidency. A part of that trail is festooned with Eisenhower’s sense of duty, but it is also tainted by the power and glory of high office. Eisenhower is solicited by both Democratic and Republican parties. In the end, the Republican platform more closely adheres to Eisenhower’s belief in fiscal conservatism.

However, Smith shows Eisenhower to be a domestic social liberal. Eisenhower is no ideologue. The inner compass that directs Eisenhower’s life recognizes the cruelty of poverty, the shallowness of red-baiting exemplified by Joseph McCarthy, and the importance of patience when dealing with international and domestic affairs.

Eisenhower resists the hawkish tendencies of his Republican colleagues. He insists on withdrawal from the Korean conflict. Eisenhower abjures any suggestion that nuclear bombs should be used to attack American enemies. He forthrightly confronts Governor Faubus when the governor refuses to integrate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

MOHAMMAD MOSADDEGH (1882-1967) — MOHAMMAD MOSADDEGH Though Eisenhower initially rejects a British assassination plot against Mosadegh in Iran, he changes his mind when he begins to believe oil availability is more important than one human life. (1882-1967)

On the other hand, Eisenhower succumbs to the machinations of his defense department and several covert plans to overthrow foreign governments. Though Eisenhower initially rejects a British assassination plot against Mossadegh in Iran, he changes his mind when he begins to believe oil availability is more important than one human life.

Though Mossadegh dies from natural causes, America supports a military junta that overthrows Iran’s government. Eisenhower’s support of the overthrow is based on British settlement of an Iranian oil agreement with Iran, and Iranian oil availability in the United States.

Eisenhower also mistakenly establishes the domino theory of communist infiltration. Though he refuses to support the French in Indochina, he believes the fall of Vietnam will expand communism in Southeast Asia. Eisenhower sets the table for Kennedy’s and Johnson’s mistakes in Vietnam.

Eisenhower is well-known for his opposition to the military/industrial complex growing in America. He insists on balancing the budget by reducing military expenditure. He reduces financing for American military forces while strengthening Air Force capability as a more modern military deterrent. Eisenhower faces down numerous military commanders that insist on expanding conventional forces that can intercede in foreign conflicts without employing weapons of mass destruction (an argument that is being made by today’s military establishment).

COMMUNIST DOMINO THEORY — Eisenhower mistakenly establishes the domino theory of communist infiltration.

recruiter — Eisenhower faces down numerous military commanders that insist on expanding conventional forces that can intercede in foreign conflicts without employing weapons of mass destruction (an argument that is being made by today’s military establishment).

Smith shows that Eisenhower refuses to balance the budget by cutting domestic programs that serve the poor and aged. Eisenhower presses unsuccessfully for increases in medical services for the American public (quite different from today’s Republican President).

Smith offers a balanced picture of Dwight Eisenhower. America benefited from Eisenhower’s political acumen. He may not rank with Washington and Lincoln, but he drew from an inner moral compass that makes human beings as good as they are capable of being.

In contrast to America’s current President, Eisenhower made one proud to be an American. (This review was written when Trump was President of the United States.)

BIRDS FLY SO WHY CAN’T I

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Wright Brothers

Written by: David McCullough

Narrated by: David McCullough

DAVID McCULLOUGH (TWO TIME PULIZER PRIZE WINNER)

“The Wright Brothers” must have wondered—Birds fly, so why can’t I? David McCullough writes and narrates a memoir of the Wright Brothers that perfectly turns wonder into reality. Orville and Wilbur Wright are the first to design, build, and fly an airplane that demonstrates human control of flight. They were not the first humans to fly, but they were the first to fly like birds; i.e. with nature and intent. Before the Wright brothers, flying is left to man’s faith in God and luck; after the Wright brothers, flying is firmly within the grasp of humanity.

Two farm boys are raised in a family of seven (a mother, father, sister, and two brothers). Neither Orville, or Wilbur are college educated. Both are born to a mother who graduates from Hartford College, as the top mathematician in her class; a woman who became a housewife to an ordained minister, and an example to her children. Through nature and nurture, Orville and Wilbur become the talk of Dayton, Ohio, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Paris, Washington DC, and, eventually, the wide world.

Wilbur is a student athlete and scholar in high school. He goes to Hartford College, like his mother, but (unlike his mother) never graduates. Orville is the younger of the two by 4 years. Orville never finishes high school. McCullough describes the boys as tinkerers with ambition and a burning desire to understand how birds fly. With extraordinary observational skill, hard work, and persistence, Orville and Wilbur observe birds in flight, build and tinker with flying machines, and meticulously repeat experiments in human flight.

WRIGHT BROTHERS' BICYCLE SHOP — WRIGHT BROTHERS’ BICYCLE SHOP

With income from a bicycle business they start in Dayton, Ohio, they begin designing their first glider. After completing their design, they make parts and assemble their air vehicles at the bicycle shop. They search for an area of the country that has the wind and landing characteristics they need to test their glider. They are invited to an area of North Carolina because of the wind and sand characteristics of the area. Their first flight is on October 5, 1900 near Kitty Hawk but it is flown more as a kite; without a pilot. After the first experiment, Wilbur takes flight as a pilot, while helpers tether the glider from the ground. These first flights lead the brothers back to the drawing board for control-feature re-design. WRIGHT UNPOWERED AIRCRAFT

The brothers return in 1901, with a new glider. The new design, allows the ribs of the wings to flex to allow adjustments in flight. They find the flexing refines control of the glider in their Dayton shop where the re-design and reassembly occur. They create a wind tunnel to help with a re-design of glider controls. They add a rear rudder to improve the steering capability of the flyer. At this point, McCullough explains that the brothers begin flying in earnest to improve their skill in maneuvering the glider. Orville and Wilbur realize earlier failures, by themselves and others, will be repeated by pilots without extensive experience with aircraft controls. McCullough reinforces the historic truth of the Wright brothers’ invention of the first airplane. Without the brother’s creative control features, airplanes would be too dangerous to fly.

WRIGHT'S 1903 FLYER ENGINE — WRIGHT’S 1903 FLYER ENGINE

CHARLES TAYLOR (1868-1956, DESIGNED THE FIRST ENGINE FOR THE WRIGHT BROTHER'S AIRPLANE) — CHARLES TAYLOR (1868-1956, DESIGNED THE FIRST ENGINE FOR THE WRIGHT BROTHER’S AIRPLANE)

Once the aerodynamics of flight are understood, the Wright brothers turn to the idea of a motor to complete their vision of human flight. Searching the nation for a light weight engine to power their glider, they find no engine fits the bill. By good fortune, the Wright brothers become friends with Charles Taylor. Taylor takes over management of their bicycle shop while they are refining their gliders. Taylor happens to be a master mechanic. He hand-builds an engine to power the first airplane motor by boring a block of aluminum for pistons to provide 12 horsepower to the Wright’s first airplane. On December 17, 1903, the first flight of a motorized airplane (an airplane with directional controls) takes place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

WRIGHT'S 1903 FLYER — WRIGHT’S 1903 FLYER

McCullough notes that neither Orville or Wilbur ever marry. They are a close family, raised by a loving father who is often absent because of his Bishopric duties and a mother who surprises local residents with her ability to manage the household, repair broken tools, and raise such self-reliant children. The brother’s sister, Katharine Wright is the only child to graduate from college. She becomes the boy’s surrogate mother when their birth-mother is invalided in 1886 and dies in 1889. Katherine becomes the first woman to fly as a passenger with Wilbur in Paris.

WRIGHT BROTHERS FAMILY (COMPOSITE PHOTO, LEFT TO RIGHT-WILBUR, KATHARINE, SUSAN, LORIN, BISHOP MILTON, REUCHIN, AND ORVILLE)

KATHARINE WRIGHT (1874-1929, SISTER OF WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT)

THOMAS SELFRIDGE (1882-1908, PASSENGER ON 1908 PLANE CRASHED IN ORVILLE WRIGHT'S DEMONSTRATION OF FLIGHT TO THE AMERICAN ARMY) — THMAS SELFRIDGE (1882-198, PASSENGER ON 1908 PLANE CRASHED IN ORVILLE WRIGHT’S DEMONSTRATION OF FLIGHT TO THE AMERICAN ARMY)

In the many flights that Orville and Wilbur take, there are several crashes. The worst crash is when Orville is demonstrating their latest airplane to the Army. According to McCullough, the crash is caused by a mechanical failure that kills an Army Lieutenant as a passenger on Orville’s flight. Orville is nearly killed but is nursed back to health by Katharine.

In most of Orville’s and Wilbur’s flights, they fly separately to assure the continuation of their company should one or the other be killed. As fate would have it, Wilbur dies from typhoid in 1912. Orville lives until 1948. They created a company in 1909 that sold planes to the U. S. Army and a French syndicate. Orville sells the company in 1915 but stays involved in aeronautics for the remainder of his life. He became a member of the Board of Directors for NASA.

Several lawsuits were brought to challenge patents created by the Wright brothers on their airplane designs; none of the challenges succeeded. McCullough implies “The Wright Brothers” story is proof of the truth of the American Dream. With hard work, persistence, and intelligence, success is every American’s opportunity. In recent years, ghosts of past and present, challenge that belief. But, for white Americans in the early twentieth century, the dream is made real by McCullough’s entertaining and informative story about the Wright family.

LAUNCHING DRAGONS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Written by: Ashlee Vance

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Ashlee Vance writes about launching dragons in a biography of Elon Musk. Like the mythical fire breathing beast that destroys civilizations, Musk’s fire-breathing ambition levels two of the most powerful organizations in the world; e.g. the auto industry and government bureaucracy.

Tesla Motors is the first automobile manufacturer to receive a unanimous vote as the best car of the year. SpaceX is the first private rocket manufacturer to successfully transport satellites and cargo into space. The principal behind these extraordinary feats is Elon Musk, a combination of the fictional Tony Stark and a real Thomas Edison. Not since the 1920s has anyone successfully launched a new automobile manufacturer. Never in history has a private company launched rockets into space to service the international space station.

TESLA'S SpaceX RE-LAUNCH ROCKET — TESLA’S SpaceX RE-LAUNCH ROCKET

Vance shows that Musk has an optimistic vision of the future of America and the world. His willingness to risk everything for alternative energy sources, and reduction of carbon-based energy consumption are astounding in the recurrent era of capitalist greed. Musk’s focus is on transition from traditional industrial methods of production to technological innovation. His methodology is a combination of traditional cost-based negotiation, vertical business integration, and hard work. The methods are not new but Musk’s extraordinary intelligence and his personal commitment are reminiscent of great inventor/innovators in history.

ELON MUSK ROLLS THE DICE AGAIN BY PURCHASING SOLAR CITY, THE LARGEST SOLAR CONVERSION COMPANY IN THE U.S.

Vance clearly illustrates that Musk is not perfect but his story will eventually, if not now, be recorded as historically important. Musk exposes the lie of Trump’s vilification of immigrants. Musk is born as a South African who comes to America through Canada. He becomes an American job producer and manufacturer when both are sorely needed to revivify the, largely mythical, American dream. Musk gives America hope.

Musk faces many obstacles in his life; just as all humans do. One advantage for Musk is in being white; oh, and being blessed with a prodigious memory, extraordinary cognitive ability, and an immense drive to succeed. Musk relentlessly pursues what he believes in. Fortunately, Musk’s natural advantages work toward the best interests of humanity; i.e. a cleaner environment and exploration for colonization of other worlds.

DONALD TRUMP (REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. 2016) Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords is reminiscent of ignorant industrial luddites. Innovators like Musk pursue an opportune future while Trump and others pursue the mythology of the past. Both Musk’s and Trump’s errors are human, but their consequences are hugely different. Vance’s biography of Musk shows releasing dragons can benefit society. Trump’s dragons are only likely to harm society. In history, Musk will be remembered fondly; Trump will be recalled sadly.

NO JOKE

Treavor Noah knows what it is to be poor. Undoubtedly, Noah now knows what it is like to be rich. More importantly, it seems Noah has adopted his mother’s independence and, from his life experience, a superior perception of reality. “Born a Crime” is no joke.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Written by: Trevor Noah

Narrated by: Trevor Noah

TREAVOR NOAH (AUTHOR, HOST OF THE DAILY SHOW)

TREVOR NOAH (AUTHOR AND HOST OF “THE DAILY SHOW”

Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime” is no joke.

Remembering when Trevor Noah took over the “Daily Show”, thoughts of a South African replacing an American, places one in two minds. One mind thinks how could a person not born in America understand the politics and culture of a country satirized by a TV show? Another mind thinks the “Daily Show” will become more culturally relevant with a commentator that satirizes more than just American culture.

JOHN STEWART (COMEDIAN, FORMER HOST OF THE DAILY SHOW)

JON STEWART (COMEDIAN AND FORMER HOST OF “THE DAILY SHOW.)

The answer to the first mind’s question is answered by the second mind’s conclusion. Personally, it is sad to have witnessed the loss of Jon Stewart’s insightful American commentary. However, Noah offers a perspective that is equally insightful; admittedly cringe worthy at times, but more universal.

TREVOR NOAH AND HIS FATHER

“Born a Crime” is testament to Noah’s cultural diversity and universal insight.

When Noah is born, he is “Born a Crime” because South African Apartheid made mixed conjugal relations a criminal offence. Noah’s father is a white Swiss entrepreneur and his mother is a black South African. They choose to have a son, though they never marry. Noah’s mother names her son Trevor because the name gives him the distinction of being neither African black, nor white but a citizen of the world.

Noah is a challenging son. He shows himself to be a hyperactive, non-violent, trouble-maker in his youth. He is born into poverty but raised by a mother who believes in a moral code of unshakable faith. In his youth, Noah defies most of his mother’s inner direction and strict, sometimes physically punishing, discipline. Retrospectively, Noah acknowledges how much his mother loved him, and how her fortitude presumably made him mentally tough, independent, and irreverently objective.

Noah’s story is a tribute to his mother. She inspires a listener to understand the importance of family, respect, love, and faith.

TREVOR NOAH (Back in the day's of delinquency)

As a youth, Noah steals, becomes a black-market maven, and juvenile delinquent.

His intelligence is used to organize a group of delinquents to make a living in a South African ghetto. He rationalizes his thievery as a game to outwit the local police and fellow miscreants in a dysfunctional culture born of the remnants of apartheid. He broadens rationalization of criminality by believing there is no harm; no foul for theft because of insurance company reimbursement of societies’ wealthy, the unfairness of Apartheid, and the reality of poverty and hunger.

Noah explains how black-markets develop and how it is difficult for poor people to escape its allure. It is the same circumstance that feeds drug cartels. Theft, like drugs, is a way of making a living in the ghetto. Both industries recruit the unemployed by offering jobs, potential wealth, and identity.

Noah notes that ghetto gangs are more in touch, supportive, and caring of the poor than the government. Gangs take care of their neighborhoods by being more involved, more considerate, and helpful when it comes to the needs of the poor. However, Noah fails to fully assess how the poor are victimized by gangs that prey on the same people they purportedly help. It is a blindness repeated in a vignette about a boy named Hitler.

An example of a “cringe worthy” observation by Noah is his explanation of his lead dancer in one of his schemes to make money in the ghetto. His little group of non-violent delinquents are hired to provide entertainment at a Jewish school in South Africa. Noah is the disc jockey. His star dance performer is a young black African named Hitler.

Noah implies that he is ignorant of Hitler’s atrocities in WWII. This is somewhat incredulous considering Noah’s intelligence.

In any case, Noah’s music heightens the excitement of his audience and he calls on Hitler to dance to the music; with a dance that includes a Hitlerian salute. Naturally, the room goes silent.

Noah gets into an argument with the person who hired his group. Noah suggests his ignorance led to a misunderstanding. He writes that when one considers the millions of black people murdered through Apartheid and slavery, Hitler is just a name given to the dancer by his mother. Black genocide and slavery is an ugly “cringe-worthy” excuse to justify Hitler’s murderous antisemitism. Putting the Hitler vignette aside, Noah’s story is a condemnation of discrimination in all forms.

Noah returns to the subject of his mother’s life with an explanation of her marriage to a black South African (Abel Shingange) who Noah describes as unconventionally handsome with a penchant for violence. He marries Noah’s mother and they have two children together. Noah is in grade school. Their life as a family lasts for over 17 tumultuous years.

The story of Noah’s mother reflects on global discrimination against women. His stepfather is shown to have been raised in a patriarchal family that emphasizes the superiority of men over women.

Women, in Abel Shingange’s life, are expected to bear children, be silent, cook and clean house, be dependent on their husbands, and respect males in all circumstances of life. Noah’s stepfather insists on that relationship in his newly formed family.

Noah’s mother comes from a completely different perspective. She is an independent soul who chose to have a child “Born a Crime” and who believed the only God is God and not man. Noah’s stepfather interprets her opinion and attitude as disrespect for his role as husband.

Noah’s mother is shot three times by his stepfather. Noah’s stepfather fired a bullet in her buttocks, her leg, and the back of her head. The government, presumably run by men, decides that the needs of two boys who remain in the home need the support of their father. Ironically, Noah notes that his stepfather rarely supported the children or family, and drank the profits of his labor. His mother had been the primary financial support of the family.

WALKING THE STREETS OF CAPETOWN SOUTH AFRICA

Noah’s stepfather is walking the streets of South Africa as a free man today. Surprisingly, Noah’s mother is alive. Through a miracle of circumstance or God, the bullet to the back of her head missed her brain.

Noah knows what it is to be poor. Undoubtedly, Noah now knows what it is like to be rich. More importantly, it seems Noah has adopted his mother’s independence and, from his life experience, a superior perception of reality. “Born a Crime” is no joke.

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