Susan Eisenhower knocks Ike memorial plan

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WASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- Susan Eisenhower called Tuesday for a complete rethink of a proposed memorial in Washington for her grandfather, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.

Testifying before a congressional committee, Eisenhower attacked almost every element in the Frank Gehry design selected for the memorial, The Washington Post reported. She compared parts of the design -- which includes a park-like area surrounded by metal tapestries hanging from large pillars -- to grandiose tributes in the former Soviet Union to Josef Stalin and in China to Communist dictator Mao Zedong.

"We now believe that a redesign is the only way to make this memorial acceptable to the American people," she said.

Gehry, one of the most renowned U.S. architects, was selected through a process in which more than 40 firms were invited to submit proposals.

The Eisenhower family wants to keep it simple, possibly with a statue on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Others argue the man who was both president and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II needs a bigger monument. One proposal is for a pillar several feet taller than Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square in London, on the grounds that Eisenhower, as a five-star general outranked an admiral.

Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 and served two terms.