"No human in history..."

“No human in history has ever held the power for which you now ask. Not Caesar not Alexander--no man—ever.” ~Winston Churchill to Eisenhower, 1941.

When I teach American History, I like to use historical films to bring history alive for the students. There are two films that always grip the attention of the students; 13 Days with Kevin Costner and Roger Greenwood about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and “Ike; the Countdown to D-Day, with Tom Selleck as Eisenhower and Ian Mune as Churchill. Both movies lack action seens but rely on the drama of impending war to build the tension.

Tom Selleck does an excellent job of acting the part of Eisenhower. Selleck captures the concern for casualties and the required modesty for Eisenhower to deal with such huge egos such as Generals Montgomery and Patton, and far worse, De Gaul. As Churchill pointed out in the first minutes of the movie, “No human in history has ever held the power for which you now ask. Not Caesar not Alexander--no man—ever.” Huge stakes and thousands of lives rested on the decision of one man. Seventy years ago today, Eisenhower has to make a judgment call to invade in the face of bad weather, impatient generals and uncertain intelligence. He wrote a letter in advance to take full responsibility in the case of the failure of the invasion, and then went to smoke and chat with paratroopers who were expected to have casualty rates of as high as 75 percent.

Below is a 9 minute clip of the opening (and one of the best) scenes in the movie.