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The Chasm. To a great extent, Ike's military career accounts for the personal loneliness from which he seeks escape in the company of a few close friends. After 1941, when General George Marshall called Brigadier General Eisenhower to Washington and thrust fame and command of the North African campaign into his hands, Ike crossed a chasm, leaped from an easygoing social life with his contemporaries into the solitary life of high command and growing professional stature. He has told associates that he found it practically impossible "to talk to anybody but my military staff ... I used to go to bed hoping I wouldn't talk in my sleep." After V-E day and Supreme Allied Command, he was even more of a big public figure with a world-known nickname, an infectious public smile; soon he was clearly presidential timber in full leaf—and more than ever before, he was uncomfortable with the public image of himself and lonely in his private life.
The Tonic. The image fal's away whenever he relaxes with his friends. They demand nothing of him, never preach, never press, never talk outside. None could be classed as a brilliant intellectual with Kitchen Cabinet pretensions. As topflight businessmen (dubbed "Ike's Millionaires" by the White House press corps), most are readily mobile, can usually drop into Washington from any place in the country to fill out a foursome on a few hours' notice from Ike. His every word is a confidence, their only purpose quiet, old-shoe congeniality.
Thus,.after four days of this tonic at Milestone, when Dwight Eisenhower returned at week's end to Washington, he was ready to assume the image of the public figure—cordial, somewhat distant—grateful for one of the brief journeys back to himself.
*For other news of Reynolds & Co., see BUSINESS.