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12 Ike and Monty Take Gettysburg Ghosts walk the land at Gettysburg, and anyone who visits the battlefield must come to grips with the fact that the place belongs to the spirits of the past. Nearly forty years ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bernard Law Montgomery, two old generals—perfect heroes in their own right—who had won their own terrible war in Europe, toured the Gettysburg field together and discovered, just as Oates and Chamberlain had some fifty-five years before, that very little can be said about that hallowed ground, that land of honored spirits, without sparking fierce disagreement and igniting great controversy.1 With a hungry press corps accompanying them and hanging on their every word, Ike and Monty learned that at Gettysburg, where the specters always seem to be listening, one must tread lightly and speak with great care. The two famous soldiers of World War II had talked about the Battle of Gettysburg from time to time during the war when Montgomery, the commander of the British and Canadian 21st Army Group, served under Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.2 For years Eisenhower had promised to take Montgomery on a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield, but when no specific invitation was ever made, Monty decided to press the issue. In November 1954, when Montgomery accompanied President Eisenhower, the first lady, and a small party of friends for Thanksgiving in Augusta, Georgia, the British field marshal announced that he would like very much to see the battlefield, and Eisenhower relented by inviting him to visit Gettysburg the following autumn, when renovations on the president’s farmhouse would be completed. Ike could not keep his promise, however; a heart attack put him in a Denver hospital in the fall of 1955, and Montgomery’s visit was spent at the president ’s bedside rather than on the battlefield.3 It was not until the spring of 1957 that Montgomery, who was then serving as deputy commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arranged to visit the Eisenhowers at Gettysburg during an American speaking tour. He arrived in New York on Tuesday, May 7, for talks with NATO officials, and the press reported with anticipation that he and Eisenhower Ike and Monty Take Gettysburg 193 would have a great deal to discuss, especially in the wake of the Suez crisis of 1956 and the president’s pledge in January 1957 to send U.S. troops to any Middle Eastern nation that asked for assistance against communist aggressors.4 But when Montgomery gave a speech in Baltimore at the English Speaking Union on Thursday evening, May 9, he complained that “the Western world looked on” and did nothing to prevent Egypt’s closing of the Suez Canal, a direct reference to Eisenhower’s refusal to endorse the combined invasion by French, British, and Israeli forces in October 1956. The Suez crisis, said Montgomery, was simply another instance of the Soviet Union’s successful incursion into the Middle East; that success, he declared ,“will go much further unless the Western Alliance quickly comes to its senses—which it shows little sign of doing.”5 As if Monty’s unfavorable comments about the foreign policy of the Eisenhower administration weren’t bad enough, he had more to say immediately after his Baltimore speech that would soon enrage the president and a good number of other Americans as well. Explaining to reporters that he was about to visit Eisenhower in Gettysburg, Montgomery remarked that he had read all about the battle and that, in his opinion as a military man, he would have “sacked” General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of NorthernVirginia,and Major General George Gordon Meade, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, for mishandling their forces during the battle that shook the peaceful Pennsylvania countryside in July 1863. When asked by reporters why the generals should have been fired, Monty explained that “Lee did not press his advantage and made a mistake in launching his strongest thrust at the strongest Union position, whereas Meade did not keep Union forces under adequate control.”6 * * * When Eisenhower learned of Montgomery’s comments the following morning, Friday, May 10, he was livid, although it’s not entirely clear what angered him the most—Montgomery’s attack on his Middle East policy or the field marshal’s careless comments about Gettysburg, a cherished American symbol of courage and sacrifice. Whatever the cause, the president was agitated...

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