You 2.0: Trusting Your Doubt

This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, had driven unannounced to the Greenham Common Air Force Base in the United Kingdom. Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division were were preparing for a historic jump.

General Eisenhower wanted to boost morale. The soldiers knew they were on a mission, but they didn't yet know the scale. The general eased their fears with a confident demeanor and friendly small talk. Where are you from? he asked one lieutenant.

Michigan? Spectacular fishing there, Eisenhower said. He was about to release a short and blunt one page memo, telling troops that they were on a great crusade to liberate Europe. He ordered them to accept nothing less than full victory. But that evening, as he made his way back home, the general confided in his driver, I hope to God I'm right.

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