Talk:Kay Summersby

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There is a wealth of material debunking Summersby's account of her "affair" with Eisenhower. I will try to compile some citations when I have time. Ellsworth 21:35, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The are from the Eisenhower talk page:

In a June 22, 1997 article in the Washington Post, Susan Eisenhower (granddaughter of Ike, but also a serious biographer in her own right) cites a scholarly consensus that Summersby did not write the "autobiography" at all.

In a March 1, 1998 article in the Post, Gil Troy, chairman of the history deparment at McGill U., also opines that Summersby's version of events is a fiction. In 1948, Summersby published a war memoir, "Ike Was My Boss", that made no mention of the "affair".

Ellsworth

Here is a wild thought: Kay Summersby was telling the truth about the affair and felt able to do so after Eisenhower was dead and at the end of her own life. That was the 1970s. Her affection for her former lover prevented her from telling the truth in the late 1940s, when it might have undermined his political chances. Everyone knew that Eisenhower was ambitious. During the Second World War, Eisenhower, his peers, his subordinates and the press played by different rules (and better rules) than their counterparts do today. Consider how they treated FDR's paralysis and his relationship with his mistress. Compare that with the treatment of Bill Clinton. The mistake so often made, aside of course from trying to rewrite the past to clean up the indiscretions of favorite conservative historical figures, is to read the past as if it were like the present. That particular mistake is called presentism and competent historians know better than to be fooled by its temptations. (Unsigned comment 13:47, 7 May 2005 by 66.20.28.21)

Wikipedia is not for wild thoughts, not even your persistent ones repeated in January, February, March and May 2005:

• "Eisenhower's prudish defenders" is a POV phrase
• "penetrative sexual act" is a statement which requires evidence
• "Eisenhower was sexually impotent" is another

So either justify them or stop putting them in. And remember the advice in the arbitration case--Henrygb 20:06, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Here is another wild thought: you are oblivious to sarcasm. Were you unable to address the ideas previously presented? Please consider them again: Kay Summersby was telling the truth about the affair and felt able to do so after Eisenhower was dead and at the end of her own life. That was the 1970s. Her affection for her former lover prevented her from telling the truth in the late 1940s, when it might have undermined his political chances. Everyone knew that Eisenhower was ambitious. During the Second World War, Eisenhower, his peers, his subordinates and the press played by different rules (and better rules) than their counterparts do today. Consider how they treated FDR's paralysis and his relationship with his mistress. Compare that with the treatment of Bill Clinton. The mistake so often made, aside of course from trying to rewrite the past to clean up the indiscretions of favorite conservative historical figures, is to read the past as if it were like the present. That particular mistake is called presentism and competent historians know better than to be fooled by its temptations. (unsigned comment 22:44, 7 May 2005 by User:66.20.28.21

OK, grant that Summersby may have been guided by scruples in her 1948 memoir and that Ike may have been sexually impotent. Can you cite your sources on these points to support your changes to the article? Ellsworth 23:02, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Dates

The birth date is different than at Find-A-Grave. Lincher 18:25, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ike and Summersby

President Truman's cousin, General Louis W. Truman, said Harry discussed Ike's realtionship with Summersby with the cousin at the White House in 1948. This is oral history, recorded Dec 7, 1991, on file at the Truman Library:

(Niel M.) JOHNSON: You visited him in the Oval Office?

(Louis) TRUMAN: A number of times. From New York, I'd come down there to Washington, in those two years. My wife could not move up to New York with me at the time and she was living in Washington. So when I would come down I would go over to the White House and contact him, I guess about every month or so, something like that. I mentioned to a man this morning, that that was when President Truman, Cousin Harry, mentioned the fact that he had offered support to Eisenhower to run for President, for the Democratic Party. Eisenhower turned him down. He also showed me the letter that he had written to Eisenhower. He had written that certain things would have to happen about his driver friend, or he was going to kick him [General Eisenhower] out. You probably have a letter here.

JOHNSON: He did make an issue of that [of the relationship

[77]

between General Eisenhower and Kay Summersby].

TRUMAN: Yes, he did, very definitely. He told me about that.

JOHNSON: This was before the '48 campaign. In other words, was Harry Truman not expecting to run in '48? Was he actually offering to support General Eisenhower as a Democratic candidate in '48?

TRUMAN: I'm pretty sure of that."

This discounts claims that Truman "misremembered " in the 1961-62 oral histories with Merle Miller and was thinking about a letter Ike wrote requesting Mamie be allowed to join him in England in 1945.Edison 21:13, 7 September 2006 (UTC)