On the eve of D-Day, the Supreme Allied Commander wrote a note taking sole blame if the invasion failed and folded it into his wallet. This episode traces how Dwight Eisenhower, raised by a devoutly pacifist mother in Abilene, Kansas, became the architect of the largest amphibious assault in history. We cover the teenage infection he refused to let doctors amputate, the pact with his brother Edgar to work at a creamery to fund each other’s education, and the West Point knee injury against Jim Thorpe that pushed him from player to coach.

Eisenhower spent World War I training tank crews stateside, was threatened with court-martial for publishing tank warfare theories with George Patton, and studied Clausewitz under mentor Fox Conner before serving with MacArthur. As president he ended the fighting in Korea, starved Joseph McCarthy of oxygen through executive privilege, sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, built the interstate highway system, and created NASA, all while projecting a relaxed golfing image that hid intense control.

• Why all the Eisenhower brothers were called Ike and how Dwight became the last one using the name
• The New Look defense policy and the economics behind relying on nuclear deterrence
• The Suez Crisis, covert coups in Iran and Guatemala, and the hidden-hand presidency
• Bridge, golf, and oil painting as pressure valves for a man carrying the Cold War
• The 1961 farewell address warning against the military industrial complex