Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower [1890-1969] was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force [AEF] during WWII, the military force that invaded Western Europe, oversaw the planning and execution of Operation Overlord [D-Day], and led to the defeat of Adolf Hitler [1889-1945] and Nazi Germany.
 
General Eisenhower’s diplomatic, patient, and astute leadership helped navigate the complex relationships, unite the Allied war effort, and secure victory in Europe. The magnitude of the difficulty – dealing with the differing strategic philosophies and competing interests of the U.S., Britain, France, and other Allied nations – was steep, yet an assignment that he performed superbly.
 
Eisenhower’s gifting and capacity to lead provide an example of genuine diplomacy. Additionally, his greatest strength was the ability to manage complex international alliances and coordinate multinational forces, which was demonstrated in dealing with the stubborn and headstrong egos of British General Bernard Montgomery, French General Charles de Gaulle, and the three American generals George S. Patton, Omar Bradley, and Mark Clark.
 
Robert Schmuhl [born 1948], the Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Chair in American Studies and Journalism at the University of Notre Dame, writes, in his 2024 book Mr. Churchill in the White House that Eisenhower could “look beyond past policy and strategic disagreements or personal frustrations to take the whole measure of someone he’d come to know and work with during the inferno of global war and, more recently, the wintry peace that followed.”
 
Having dealt with and seen greatness in those he crossed during his career, Eisenhower later listed the essential qualities of human greatness from his perspective as being “Vision, integrity, courage, understanding the power of articulation either in spoken or written form, and what we might call profundity of character.”1

On November 4, 1952, ‘Ike’ Eisenhower was elected President of the U.S. Two years after being sworn-in, he said on Winston Churchill’s [1874-1965] eightieth birthday: “I would say that he comes nearest to fulfilling the requirements of greatness in any individual that I have met in my lifetime. I have known finer and greater characters, wiser philosophers, more understanding personalities. But they did not achieve prominence either through carrying on duties of great responsibility or through giving to the world new thoughts and ideas.”2
 
Churchill’s most outstanding quality was his ability to come back. Tested by adversity multiple times throughout his life, Sir Winston’s ability to withstand and adjust to challenges defined his legacy, not to mention the awful environment of his upbringing.
 
Stephen Mansfield writes that it would be nice to report that the Churchills shared a warmly intimate home life. Not only could nothing be further from the truth, it is also one of the most pivotal factors in Winston’s early life and psychological make-up. To the neglect of their son, Randolph and Jennie Churchill gave themselves entirely over to merrymaking and social ambitions.
 
Of his mother, Winston later wrote, “I loved her, but at a distance.” His father deemed Winston to be mentally challenged, rarely conversed with him, and regularly vented his mounting rage on the child. More than one historian has concluded that Lord Randolph loathed his son.3
 
Providentially for Winston, God provided shortly after his birth a nanny, Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Everest, whom he called ‘Woom’. Mansfield writes, “She was the fireside at which he dried his tears and warmed his heart. She was the night light by his bed. She was security. She was also his first contact with genuine Christianity.
 
“A ‘low church’ believer, she rejected ‘ornaments and ritual’ and opposed all of the ‘popish trappings’ in the Anglican Church. But she was also a passionate woman of prayer and she taught young Winston well. She helped him memorize his first Scriptures, knelt with him daily as he recited his prayers, and explained the world in simple but distinctively Christian terms.
 
“He, in turn, adored her and regarded her every word as on par with the law of God. …”4
 
Years later, when he was under fire on some remote battlefield or entangled in the most troubling difficulties, he remembered the prayers he had learned at Mrs. Everest’s knee.
 
Solomon’s Proverbs 24:10 informs us that “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is limited.” Elaborating on this verse, Dr. Bruce K. Waltke, the foremost living authority on the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, said, “A person reveals the degree and extent of his strength by his conduct in crisis.”
 
Distinguished Old Testament scholar and former Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, William McKane, adds, “It is when a man is hemmed in and trapped by adverse circumstances that his powers of endurance are stretched and an estimate of his toughness and stamina can be made.”
 
For the Eisenhower’s and Churchill’s of this generation and the next that God is raising up, may you walk in His Stride. May you generously use your influence and authority for the “Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith” [Mayflower Compact], as we seek to turn the nation back to God in the coming 30 years.
 
As a word of encouragement to the Josephs, struggling in the hardships of life. Don’t forget that you may be on the verge of the most remarkable breakthrough and don’t even know it yet: for God does not announce His appointments in advance.5
 
Gideons and Rahabs have entered the public square.
 
David Lane
American Renewal Project
 
1-2. Robert Schmuhl, Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents; 2024.
3-4. Stephen Mansfield, Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill [Leaders in Action Series]; 2002.
5. Charles R. Swindoll, A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness: Joseph; 2008.