but it was filled with a lot of drama, and included the rivalry between general patton and bernard montgomery, the british commander. however, something i wanted to point out that is of special significance in this gallery that we want our visitors to understand is that war is a very messy, dirty, and often unfair business. and in those landings, at sicily, we are going to see the worst friendly fire incident that american forces suffer in world war ii. better than 300 american paratroopers are going to be shot down by allied forces as they approach southern italy early in the invasion. this is something that came about because of inexperience and green troops and fear. it is a part of war, and it is not an easy, glorious march to victory in world war ii like a lot of people think it was today when we call it the good work. -- good war. very bad things happened in that good war. here we have an airman's cloth map of italy and tunisia. when the paratroopers would drop into unknown territories, they would have the maps dyed into scarves that they would wear, and this is how they would try to ma

combining with bernard montgomery, to push against the germans and the italian forces, eventually driving them off of the sicilian island, across the straits of sicily, into the southern boot of italy there. so you get a sense of the campaign and how it moved to this very rapid conclusion only 38 days after the landings here. we're now leaving the sicily gallery and entering the italian campaign here in the national world war ii museum. you can see on the map to my right the situation that the allies faced in september of 1943 as we begin the invasion of italy. now, the italian campaign had been urged by winston churchill, to be a soft underbelly of europe, that we could drive up the peninsula and possibly get at nazi germany and win the war. it's not going to turn out that way at all. instead, the italian campaign is going to be a long, bloody slog, and it starts from the very beginning. the allies are going to face great challenges with the amphibious landings that we must perform to win, and it's always important as you walk through these galleries, to remember the ultimate fight we're

showing my age again, you imagine working with charles de gaulle, winston churchill, bernard montgomery, george patton, omar bradley, and surviving it? everybody, on both sides. it seems to me that this is a trait that i think of as very important for dwight d. eisenhower. yanek: good question, yes. he showed that during world war ii. in world war ii, he was not a brilliant strategist. he does not go down in history as a strategic general. he was no more as somebody who could work well with different egos and allies. he was more a political general than a military strategic kind of planner. as president, he worked well with congress. in fact, one thing that both roosevelt and eisenhower had in common that made for two successful terms as president was their ability to work in congress. eisenhower's specific ability was to work with the senate majority leader of that time, lyndon johnson. privately -- well, after sputnik was launched, johnson capitalized on the launch of sputnik. he and his aides saw space is an issue that he could capitalize on and even lead johnson through the white ho