War on Opposite Sides of the World Lecture

Dwight Eisenhower and Chester Nimitz commanded the two most critical theaters of the Second World War. They led not only the forces of their own service—Eisenhower, the army, and Nimitz, the navy—they led all the forces of all the services, of all the Allied nations inside their command area. Ike, as he was universally known, was responsible for the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy (D-Day); Nimitz commanded a theater of 65 million square miles, five times the size of Eisenhower’s. Each also had to deal with difficult subordinates and superiors. And yet they each managed to orchestrate victory over their foes. How they did that is the subject of this lecture.