TLS, one page, 8 x 10.5, Office of the Supreme Commander letterhead, July 15, 1944. Ike writes to Bennett H. McGee in Cleveland. In full: “I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity of sending through the pages of your magazine a message to the men that the East Glenville Methodist Church has sent to the fighting services. To each of them I should like to say that in this war they are definitely fighting for those basic principles of human rights and dignity that are implicit in the teachings of Christianity. I should like to tell them, also, that even though there are grim and bitter tasks still facing us, when soldiers are sustained by deep-seated conviction in the eternal justice of the cause for which they are fighting, the first great step toward victory has already been attained. Finally, I should like to shake the hand of each and say to him, ‘Good luck and may you soon go back to East Glenville in the conviction of having done your duty nobly and well.” The pivotal invasion of Normandy, code-named Operation Overlord, took place a month earlier, on June 6. Paris was finally liberated a month after Eisenhower sent this letter, on August 25. The slightest hint of soiling to one corner and a few subtle bends and wrinkles, otherwise fine, bright condition. LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
