Homesick General Eisenhower Writes of a WWII Visit to Jerusalem and Levant at Christmas

Eisenhower had only been the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Forces for two days when he wrote this letter – but he didn’t bother to mention the promotion to his wife, Mamie; what he wanted to say is that he felt like a traveling salesman, all his days were the same, and Christmas had been flat. That, and she was his darling, his sweet, he loved her and hoped that when the war was over, their long partings would be at an end.
 
He mentions that among his travels throughout the Mediterranean, he visited Jerusalem – for two hours; he had gone there, actually, for pleasure, taking a break from presenting to the Combined Chiefs of Staff, in Cairo, his view of the  military situation in the region.
 
 During the past few weeks I've had the existence of a traveling man. Been to Cairo - (Jerusalem for a 2 hr visit) - Tunis - Italy - Sicily - Oran – etc. Some places I stayed 2 hrs - some a whole week. You can see that I've had little time for routine existence! My latest trip to Italy was completed last night - it lasted a week!... I've had a good case of homesickness lately. Nothing has been exactly right & everybody about me is having a tough time. I try to hang on to some shreds of a good disposition, but it does get tough at times.
 
Now he is returning to a move into a hotel, which he dreads; complaining that he’ll have to let go of some of the people upon whom he depends. An example, he says, is “the darkies [his valet Sgt. John Moaney] that live in my house with Mikey [Mickey McKeogh] & the steward.”  Eisenhower’s use of a racial epithet was not, for him, unusual. But Sgt. Maoney stayed with Eisenhower throughout the White House years, and he and his wife worked for the Eisenhowers at Gettysburg.

Autograph Letter Signed (“Ike”), as Supreme Allied Commander, 3 pages, quarto, no place [Office of the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Force Headquarters], December 26, [1943]. To his wife, Mamie. With transmittal envelope bearing his full signature “Dwight D. Eisenhower,” as censor.