John Eisenhower, Historian and Son of the President, Dies at 91

John S. D. Eisenhower, the son of Dwight D. Eisenhower who forged a reputation in his own right as a well-regarded military historian, died on Saturday at his home in Trappe, Md., on the Eastern Shore. He was 91.

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Associated Press

Mr. Eisenhower in 1990.

The death of Mr. Eisenhower, who had been the oldest surviving child of an American president, was announced by the office of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

John Eisenhower was an Armyofficer in World War II and the Korean War and a national security adviser during his father’s presidency. But he had been viewed primarily as the son of Ike, the American hero.

When he graduated from West Point on June 6, 1944, photographers gathered for an image of the Army’s new second lieutenant with his mother, Mamie. But John Eisenhower was seen as a footnote to a historic day. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, had just announced the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy.

John Eisenhower’s public image began to change in 1969 with the publication of his first book, “The Bitter Woods,” a history of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. It was a best seller, and he later wrote on the Mexican War and World War I, as well.

Dwight D. Eisenhower died in March 1969. Two months later, John Eisenhower took up his duties as ambassador to Belgium, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, Eisenhower’s former vice president and the father-in-law of John Eisenhower’s son, David, newly married to Julie Nixon.

After two years as an ambassador, John Eisenhower published his memoir, “Strictly Personal.”

“So Far From God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848,” was his first book with no connection to his father’s career.

When it was published in 1989, John Eisenhower, a reserved figure who bore a strong facial resemblance to his father, reflected on how his life had invariably been defined. “I was patted on the head as the great man’s son,” he told USA Today.

“I said: ‘The hell with it. I’m going to do something my old man couldn’t get into.’”

The book was well received, prompting him to remark, “God, it feels great.”

John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was born in Denver while his father was stationed at an Army post in Panama. As a youngster, he toured World War I battle sites with his father, who was writing an Army guidebook to them. He attended high school in the Philippines during his father’s tour there and followed his path by entering West Point in July 1941.

When he graduated, Gen. George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, directed him to spend his brief leave with his father to help him cope with the tensions arising from the Normandy invasion. The son was soon thrilled to be riding with his father aboard a Flying Fortress bomber, heading over the English Channel to visit the battlefront.

But, as he recalled in his memoir, “I was not only his son; I was a young lieutenant who needed on occasion to be straightened out.”

At one point, “I asked him in all earnestness: ‘If we should meet an officer who ranks above me but below you, how do we handle this? Should I salute first and when they return my salute, do you return theirs?’

“Dad’s annoyed reaction was short. ‘John, there isn’t an officer in this theater who doesn’t rank above you and below me.’ ”

John Eisenhower hoped to see combat as an infantry platoon commander, but his father’s fellow commanders, Gen. Omar N. Bradley and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., feared the impact on his father’s already heavy burdens if his son were killed in action or captured. He was assigned to intelligence and administrative duties in England and Germany.

He later received a master’s degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia University, taught English at West Point and then finally experienced combat at the outset of a yearlong tour in the Korean War.

Mr. Eisenhower was a White House adviser on national security affairs during his father’s second term as president and later worked with him on his two-volume presidential memoir, “White House Years.” He retired from the regular Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1963 and became a brigadier general in the reserves.

After serving as ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971, Mr. Eisenhower resumed a writing career with his memoir.