Seventy Years Ago: Operation Liberate North Africa

You're right. We didn't call the invasion of North Africa anything like "Operation Liberate North Africa." That's the sort of thing we do now, when military operations and their names have been taken over by Public Relations Experts.

The real name was "Operation Torch."

Guadalcanal was "Operation Watchtower."

Such names were meant to conceal, not reveal, the purpose of the operation. And certainly not to gloat.

Allied Commander of Operation Torch was Dwight David Eisenhower, Major General, United States Army. Little over a year earlier, he had been Colonel Eisenhower, in charge of the Army's Louisiana Maneuvers. A decade in the future, he would be elected President.

Presidential Scholar Richard Neustadt describes outgoing President Truman's speculation about Eisenhower's difficulties should he win the election: "He'll sit here," Truman would remark (tapping his desk for emphasis), "and he'll say, 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. Poor Ike-it won't be a bit like the Army. He'll find it very frustrating."

Neustadt thought Truman's prediction was accurate and that Eisenhower found the presidency frustrating.

I think Truman was wrong. No one knew better than Eisenhower how to persuade reluctant and egotistic subordinates to do what he wanted done.

An example of what Eisenhower had to deal with and how he proceeded is set out in a long letter from him to Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall dated October 20, 1942. It was very far from "do this!" and "do that!" The letter can be read here.

Neustadt's essay on presidential power, from the introduction to a later edition of his book, can be read here.  It is well worth taking the time to read it. Better yet, read the whole book.