| Original caption: “Ticker Tape and torn paper shower down on General Dwight D. Eisenhower, shown waving in car in the foreground, as the cavalcade turns into lower Broadway from the Battery for the trip to City Hall during New York’s welcome home to the Commander.” At precisely 1017 Hours, General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) stepped out of his plane at La Guardia Field, New York City. 4,000,000 men, women, and children cheered him as he rode through 37 miles of New York’s streets. At City Hall, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (December 11, 1882 – September 20, 1947) presented to him, on behalf of the city, a Gold Medal and conferred upon him the honorary citizenship of New York City. Eisenhower said: “As my 1st act as a citizen of the city of New York I want to issue to the mayor a word of warning. New York simply cannot do this to a Kansas farmer boy and keep its reputation for sophistication…There is [1] thing, Mister Mayor, that impressed me very much as you and I rode down through the cheering throngs this morning: 1st, the reason for the cheering — it was not because 1 individual, 1 American, came back from war; it is rejoicing that a nasty job is done – 1 nasty job is finished…How much better it would have been had there been no cause for rejoicing, had there been no war. “At one stretch in our trip this morning the mayor told me there were four hundred and fifty thousand school children. I looked at them carefully. I suppose they averaged twelve years old. Can the parents and the relatives of those children look ten years ahead and be satisfied with anything less than your best to keep them away from the horrors of the battlefield? It has got to be done. It is not enough that we devise every kind of international machinery to keep the peace. We must also be strong ourselves. Weakness cannot co-operate with anything. Only strength can co-operate. If we are going to live the years of peace to which this weary world is entitled and which we passionately want for our children, then we must be strong and we must be ready to co-operate, and in the spirit of true tolerance and forbearance.” At the Waldorf-Astoria, at the dinner given in his honor that night, the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force said: “As I see it, peace is an absolute necessity to this world. Civilization itself, in the face of another catastrophe…would tremble, possibly decay and be destroyed…I believe that we should let no specious argument of any kind deter us from exploring every direction in which peace can be maintained. I believe we should be strong, but we should be tolerant. We should be ready to defend our rights, but we should be considerate and recognize the rights of the other man. This business of preserving the peace is a practical thing, but practicality and idealism are not necessarily mutually antagonistic. We can be idealistic and we can be practical along with it.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0784.jpg |
| Image Size | 238.21 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1153 x 1471 |
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| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 19, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | New York |
| State or Province | New York |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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