Review Of Ike's Bluff, By Dwight D. Thomas

Thomas’s book, Ike’s bluff: president Eisenhower’s secret battle to save the world is about how Dwight D. Eisenhower leads the country through the most difficult challenges of his two-term presidency. Thomas argues that Eisenhower used ambiguity, bluff and confusion to achieve his central national security goal of preventing the US from entering a nuclear war. He further contends that Eisenhower’s skill at games enabled him to succeed in bluffing his way through conflict. Key to support of his main argument is a recurrent reference to Eisenhower’s fondness for games, card playing skills and use of card analogies while dealing with critical decisions.
Evan Thomas is an award-winning journalist. He worked several decades at Time and Newsweek

Howard Snyder and his son John Eisenhower. Thomas illustrates how Ike was at times very hard on these people yet relied heavily on these relationships to sustain him during stressful times. He describes Ike’s interactions with key figures in his administration. Thomas devotes much of his discussions to Ike’s dealings with his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and CIA director Allen Dulles. Ike affords both men great latitude in carrying out their duties. He stands by these men even when they make critical mistakes. Eisenhower accepts responsibility for problems caused by his administration. Notably he takes the blame for the downing of the U-2 and capture of CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union (p. 378).
Thomas spends a good deal of time discussing Ike’s proclivity for playing games. How the president golfed frequently and relied on a group of well-placed friends for private socialization. He recounts the frequent card games the president plays in his free time. He calls Eisenhower a “card shark” who was an instinctive gamer. As a young Army officer, Eisenhower was so skilled at cards that he stopped playing for money because he was fleecing his fellow officers (p.

Ike feared nuclear war and did not want America using all its resources to prepare for war (p. 60). Eisenhower personally feels that nuclear disarmament is crucial to preventing a nuclear war. Yet he is compelled to stay ahead of America’s adversaries in the nuclear weapons race. This allows him to use his advantage as leverage, or a threat to prevent conflict.
Thomas describes how Eisenhower handles the major threats of his two presidential terms. Each crisis sees Ike approaching the problem as if it is a game of cards. With Ike reading his opponents hands while keeping his own cards close to his chest, obscuring his intentions from both adversaries and allies.
To prove his thesis, Thomas cites game analogies Ike uses dealing with major issues. Project Solarium, a policy to counter emerging Soviet nuclear capability is called a high stakes game of chicken played boldly (p. 107). Ike has diplomats bluff by hinting the U.S. is willing to use nuclear weapons if the Chinese do not agree to end the Korean conflict (p. 75). In response to Khrushchev’s Berlin ultimatum, Eisenhower says we should not start with smaller poker chips, working up to large ones, rather we let them know that our whole stack is in play (p. 320). During the same crises the President remarks about whether the U.S. has the nerve to push all the chips in the pot (p. 325). In his handover of office