<--PREV Doc #17  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #19 Document #18; February 3, 1953 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Cabinet Series ; Category: Personal and secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork   Dear Foster:1 Suggestion has been made by one of our Cabinet associates that we open each Cabinet meeting with a word of prayer.2 I have given consideration to the matter, and I am, of course, certain that this would be a splendid and helpful habit provided that we unanimously--or practically unanimously--have the same desire. I should like to ask you to check which one of the ideas listed below would most nearly express your attitude:3 a. Open meetings with a very short, spoken prayer, offered by one of the individuals attending. b. Meeting to be opened by the President announcing a short period (30 seconds) of silent prayer. c. Open the meeting with no ceremony of any kind. Sincerely 1 This letter was sent to each member of the Cabinet (see AWF/Cabinet). 2 Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson suggested this to Eisenhower before the first meeting of the newly formed Cabinet at the Commodore Hotel (January 12) and again in a letter to the President on January 28 (Ezra Taft Benson, Cross Fire: The Eight Years with Eisenhower [Garden City, N.Y., 1962], pp. 33, 36-38, 49, 59-60). 3 Of the fourteen Cabinet members responding, nine chose the silent prayer and five preferred the short, spoken one. At the Cabinet meeting on February 6, the President would announce that future meetings "would be opened with a few moments of silent prayer" and occasionally with an oral prayer offered by one of the participants (Cabinet meeting minutes, Feb. 6, 1953, AWF/Cabinet). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and secret To John Foster Dulles, 3 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 18. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/18.cfm <--PREV Doc #17  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #19

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