Eisenhower's Cultural Biases

In 1941 GEN Dwight D. Eisenhower assumed control of allied forces in Africa, which was his first strategic level combat command. The allied leaders expected him to win a decisive victory in the Mediterranean. Eisenhower’s inexperience commanding at the strategic level contributed to an almost disastrous campaign. Fortunately, he learned from his mistakes and applied these lessons to his next assignment as Supreme Allied Commander, European Theater of Operations. Eisenhower developed as a leader by improving his ability to manage the strategic environment, to deal with competing cultures in his command and to implement change.

During his time in the Mediterranean, Eisenhower quickly learned that strong leaders assess the political ramifications

In 1920, Fox Conner mentored Eisenhower in the belief that the next world war would be fought as “systems of single command” with allied nations.20 Conner instilled in Eisenhower that the United States military would have to “overcome nationalistic considerations in the conduct of campaigns”.21 This was a lesson that Eisenhower took to heart. Eisenhower certainly understood the importance of maintaining the Anglo-American coalition. However, he did not have the experience to recognize and mitigate the cultural bias among the American and British military leaders. For example, Eisenhower was minimally involved in the planning of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.22 Eisenhower’s involvement might have brought to light the cultural bias presented by British LTG Alexander. LTG Alexander’s prejudice of British superiority led him to assign the main effort to Montgomery’s “worn out” troops instead of Patton’s II Corps.23 One of the reasons Eisenhower was “ruthless” when selecting officers in the European Theater was to help mitigate cultural bias on his staff.24 Eisenhower understood that both the English and American leaders had to put aside their cultural biases for the war effort to be successful. He began planning Operation Overlord determined to apply the lessons learned from the Mediterranean campaign. In an effort to do this, he only selected officers with combat experience that he could trust. Among other things, this approach helped Eisenhower avoid the cultural pitfalls he faced in the