Tom Selleck, a non-smoker, temporarily took up the habit to play Dwight Eisenhower, who was, according to Selleck in the DVD's bonus feature, a four-pack-a-day smoker at the time. In 1949, Eisenhower was advised by his doctor and friend, Howard Snyder, to cut down on the cigarettes to one pack per day. Eisenhower initially did so, but after a few days, he decided that counting cigarettes was worse than smoking and quit permanently in 1949. He never smoked again.
A written message written by Eisenhower and taking full responsibility by him and to be issued to the media should the D-Day landings fail was found in one of the pockets of his military uniforms years later after D-Day. These details about this message were worked into this tele-movie's script.
D-Day was on the 6th of June 1944. This tele-movie marked the 60th Anniversary of D-Day as it was both filmed and first broadcast in 2004, sixty years after D-Day.
This film is a rare occurrence in which both Tom Selleck and Gerald McRaney appear without their trademark mustaches, in order to play two well-known real-life historical figures who did not have mustaches.
Both Tom Selleck and co-star Timothy Bottoms portray men who went to become President. Tom Selleck playing Dwight D Eisenhower who became President after Harry S. Truman; Timothy Bottoms portrayed George W. Bush, President from 2001 to 2009 in DC 9/11: Time of Crisis (2003), also written by Lionel Chetwynd.