CNN - Biographer offers new look at Eisenhower

(CNN) -- Using materials never before available to historians, biographer Geoffrey Perret has fashioned a revealing portrait of Dwight David Eisenhower, the Allied Commander in Europe during World War II and the 34th president of the United States.

Published by Random House, "Eisenhower" draws from a variety of new material -- including Eisenhower's papers and diaries -- to tell the life story of a young Kansan who who grew to be a complex and tough-minded leader.

This in-depth look at Eisenhower offers fresh perspectives, not only on World War II and the Korean War but also on the Cold War, the civil rights movement, McCarthyism, the U-2 crisis and Vietnam.

The new resources, along with dozens of interviews with people who knew Eisenhower well, resolve many questions that have, until now, been matters only of speculation and rumor. Perret addresses:

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Read an excerpt from 'Eisenhower'

How Eisenhower's success as Supreme Commander was due largely to the fact that he was not only an infantry man, but also a pilot. He understood air power better than any infantry general of his generation. That understanding allowed him to make the right decisions on air power when his air commanders failed to agree.

While Kay Summersby, Eisenhower's wartime driver, has claimed to have had an affair with him, Perret offers evidence that no affair existed. The nature of their relationship was probably less than she claimed, but more than he acknowledged, Perret writes.

Geoffrey Perret will discuss his book and answer question when he is the guest during an hour-long CNN.com online chat Monday, November 8 12pm est.

How Eisenhower was closely involved in the Brown versus Board of Education case on school integration, personally rewriting the government's brief in the second Brown decision, the one that dealt with implementation. He wanted immediate implementation, under direct federal supervision, before those who opposed integration could react, Perret writes. Eisenhower was bitterly disappointed when the Supreme Court sanctioned, instead, a policy of "all deliberate speed."

How Eisenhower couldn't stand his vice president, Richard Nixon, calling him "a loser" and telling friends in 1960, "We nominated the wrong man."

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