Ike: Countdown to D-Day

King George VI:
I am impressed by the detail, the comprehensiveness of your planning. The expected losses, the sheer carnage...

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
I also ache at that thought, your majesty. I remember my first trip to Europe as a young man, and I felt blessed to be here, to see it, to touch the origins of my own country that I love so dearly. I hoped one day all young Americans will have the same opportunity. Now hundreds of thousands will, along with Britons, and Canadians and European Allies fighting to return home. This kind of visit isn't what I had in mind. But if they do not offer the sacrifice in blood now, we will all pay dearly with added gallons later. So if some must die, it is in a worthy cause.

Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith:
Last one at the dance or the first?

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Hell, it's just the way it is, Bedell. One minute I'm exactly what Churchill described, the most powerful man in history. Now the order's given, hell; I'm just audience, front row center to be sure. But a Corporal on Juno, a Private on Utah, they're the ones who will affect the outcome, not me. It's up to them now.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Dearest Mamie...

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
...at last the days grow longer and we will soon be in it. I face that with neither dread nor joy. How I wish this cruel business of war could be completed quickly. It leaves me heartsick to think of sending so many young men against Hitler's Atlantic wall. I admit to having developed a veneer of callousness, but counting the human cost is a terribly sad business, and no veneer of callousness allows me to escape the truth that back home the news brings anguish and suffering. So many youngsters already gone forever. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters back home must have a difficult time retaining any belief in the internal rightness of things. There is no true glory in war.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
I'm not sending a bunch of fresh young kids to die for a people they know nothing about, I'm asking them to die for freedom and they're ready to do it and that's why they're heroes.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Of course Overlord did not fail. How could it? With so many fine young men and women from all corners of the earth, all determined to do their best to free a world gone half mad.

Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery:
I'll be off, then.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
I'll walk you out.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Supposed to be a good movie.

Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery:
Not much taste for the cinema myself. Besides, Never enough time for preparation, is there?

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Well, we all need some recreation. A movie once a week, let the hair down seems to do the trick.

Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery:
If you say so. Although, if you don't mind me saying so... that jeering when you came on the screen. A bit much.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Good natured as I see it.

Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery:
Undisciplined.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
So is using German troop movements to push your plan for a dagger thrust again. The broad assault is a closed matter. I allow all my sub-commanders latitude, General, but restraint is also a virtue.

Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery:
Yes, sir. Point taken.

General Charles DeGaulle:
You say local administrations will stay in place?

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
For stability, General.

General Charles DeGaulle:
Only I shall decide what to do with Vichy officials. No, no, it is all quite impossible. I will never accept that you can speak for all of the allies.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
The British have, the Canadians, the Australians, the exiled Dutch and Poles. Roosevelt and Churchill have agreed. Come to think of it, you're the only exception.

General Charles DeGaulle:
You will not treat us like Italy. We are not German allies.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
In fact the Vichy government is precisely that, General. But... we will liberate France and treat her as an ally nonetheless. All I ask is that you speak on the radio after my address and call on your people to aid us in their liberation.

General Charles DeGaulle:
Speak after you? Impossible. That would imply that I approve of your program.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
I understand. Allow me see you to your car.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
There's only one way to be absolutley certain German spies or simply loose lips don't stumble across our activities and anticipate our moves, and that is to seal the coast across the south of England and Wales to all unauthorized traffic.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
Most of it is sealed already.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
I mean... all of it. No civilian traffic whatsoever.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
Are you mad, sir? Do you not realize that no one in Britain is more than 150 miles from the sea? It is no accident that Britania rules the waves and all that business. We are a people whose entire destiny is linked to the sea!

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Which is why you must now turn your people away from it.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
Impossible.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
It might mean thousands... tens of thousands of young men's lives.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
I'll will give you this, General, you know how to take charge.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
It's not about power, sir. It is simply the judicious use of the responsibility you entrusted me with.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
Only under duress, and your threats to walk out. I'll have you remember that.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Yes sir.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
There are two kinds of problem drinkers Chief Whip; those who drink too much and those who drink too little.