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Ike is Asked to Opt Out

Eisenhower in the Philipines with MacArthur

Until he published his first book, Crusade in Europe,in 1948, Dwight Eisenhower never had much money.

He grew up in a family that lived close to the railroad tracks on the poor side of town. As he launched his Army career, his pay was never more than barely enough to maintain a modest life style. In fact, during his early years in the military he augmented his low income through his extraordinary skill as a poker player.

While he never actually sought civilian employment, he did consider some of the offers that came his way. Here’s the story of the employment opportunities he considered long before he became famous.

During World War I Eisenhower was promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel while he was commander of a tank training regiment at Camp Colt, outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When the war ended he was disappointed that he had not been sent to combat duty in France, and he began to think that his prospects in the Army were rather bleak. He later wrote, “I had missed the boat in the war we had been told would end all wars.” One of his junior officers in the Camp Colt regiment, a businessman from Indiana, urged him to leave the army and join his business firm at a salary considerably higher than his army pay. Although tempted, Ike politely demurred.

Later, there were other attractive offers. In 1932 Major Eisenhower was working in the War Department in Washington. He was assigned to Assistant Secretary Payne and spent his time drafting correspondence and writing speeches. Since Ike was by then widely recognized as a superb writer, Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur frequently borrowed Eisenhower to draft his speeches and prepare his congressional testimony. At that time, Ike’s financial situation was worsening. President Hoover had cut military pay by 10 percent before leaving office and President Roosevelt cut it by another 10 percent when he took office. Mamie’s father, John Doud, had to provide partial support for Eisenhower’s family and Ike began to wish that he might have to leave the service because of the low military income.

Just at that time, media magnate William Randolph Hearst was quietly searching the U.S. Army for an officer to become the military correspondent for his entire chain of newspapers. He offered Eisenhower a starting salary of $15,000 for the first year and $20,000 the second. At the time, this was a princely sum and the first-year salary alone was more than three times his military pay. After closely considering the job, however, Eisenhower decided to remain in uniform.

The next two unsolicited job offers Ike received involved staggering amounts of money.
The first proposal came in 1938 while Lieutenant Colonel Eisenhower was stationed in the Philippines working for Douglas MacArthur. During Ike’s four years of service in the Philippines he had become well known for his hatred of Hitler. A group of prominent Jewish civilians in Manila called upon him with an offer. The Jews in Germany at that time were being horrendously persecuted. Adolf Hitler declared that he was perfectly willing to let them leave Germany if they could find other countries that would permit their immigration. The group that called upon Eisenhower wanted him to leave the military service and run an organization that would set up sanctuaries for Germany’s Jews in China, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and several other countries. They offered to pay him $60,000 (about $2 million in today’s money) every year for five years and, further, to put all the money into an escrow account that would be paid over to Ike if he were ever to leave the organization. After some deep soul searching, Ike declined this offer too. He was an American soldier, a war was coming, and he was going home to get ready. No amount of money could change that.

The following year Ike finally managed to get himself reassigned from the Philippines to the United States. A few weeks before he left for home, Philippine President Quezon implored him to stay and handle military affairs for the government in Manila. Knowing of the offer that Ike had declined the previous year, Quezon told Eisenhower to simply write down whatever salary he wanted and it would be granted. This time Eisenhower didn’t hesitate for a moment and politely rejected the position.

Patriotism has many ingredients. Long before he had become a national hero, Dwight Eisenhower had repeatedly chosen service to his country over service to himself. Duty always trumped material gain for Ike, a leader who had defined his concept of patriotism through a life of service to the United States.