<--PREV Doc #45  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #47 Document #46; February 19, 1953 To Alfred Maximilian Gruenther Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal 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 Al: I am delighted to know that there is a real possibility of your coming this way in March.1 We intend to be in the city all during the month so, any day you come, I should be right here behind this desk. My latest news from Europe seems to me to be less dark and forbidding than it was a month ago.2 While I would not maintain that we should get up on the treetops and start singing songs of victory, recent letters from Winston,3 Mr. Drees,4 Mr. Mayer,5 and others all convince me that Europe is ready to take a new plunge into the job of developing better economic and military cooperation among its several parts. A message from Mr. Adenauer was likewise cautiously optimistic.6 When you come home, I think you should have Ridgway's authority to stay over here for a while on leave. You are no longer in the twenties, and able to get your proper rest in the back end of a bouncing Ford! A couple of weeks down South somewhere would be a wonderful break and tonic for you. If you so chose, you could even stay at one of the military stations, like Benning or Bragg. However, I think you should get away from the places where they could demand that you make lectures and talks--but I shall guarantee to find a good friend that will extend you and Grace a warm invitation to come and loaf. Someone asserted this morning--after listening to a briefing on the world situation--that we would all be in fine shape if America just had unlimited amounts of money. In spite of the fact that money is needed everywhere, in appalling amounts, the fact is that under no conditions could there be enough money for these things. If there were that much, then our money would be so cheap that it would be useless. It is only valuable as long as it is hard to get. (It occurs to me that this is true of everything in life, including a gal!) However, I did not mean to grow philosophical--so good luck, and don't forget that you and Grace should really plan on a good vacation. As ever 1 "As a taxpayer I am gratified to see that the Executive Offices of the White House have become so well organized that you now have considerable time for recreation and relaxation," Gruenther had joked in a letter dated February 12 (AWF/A). He also reported that he had been invited to speak at the University of Louisville on March 19 and in Detroit the day following. "If the present incumbent of the White House could organize a bridge game for Sunday afternoon, March 22d, it is just possible that I could re-examine my schedule to delay long enough in Washington to pick up a little extra money to take care of Grace on her Flea Market junkets." On Gruenther see no. 28; on Mrs. Gruenther's recent shopping forays in Paris see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 1052. 2 See no. 5. 3 In a personal letter of February 9 (AWF/I), Churchill had described the recent visit of Secretary of State Dulles and Mutual Security Agency Director Harold Stassen as "most valuable to both sides. We entirely agree with you about the paramount importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," Churchill wrote further, "on the strength of which our whole future depends. A good deal of attention was given during our talks with Mr. Dulles to the problems of the European Defence Community." "There was complete agreement that it was desirable to make rapid progress in setting up the Community. . . . You can rely upon us to continue to give every support and encouragement to this great undertaking," the British Prime Minister concluded. For background on the EDC and the Dulles-Stassen trip to Europe see no. 28. 4 Willem Drees, Dutch Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, had been one of the first Europeans to meet with Eisenhower after he assumed command at SHAPE (Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 14). On February 13, acknowledging Dulles and Stassen's discussions at the Hague, Drees expressed his government's strong support for "a widening and deepening of economic cooperation and ultimate integration of national European economies" as contributing "not only to the security and economic health of each of the Western European countries, but also to the strength of the Atlantic Community as a whole" (AWF/I). Active Dutch participation in the EDC, Drees reminded the President, "could only be decided upon, after certain doubts had been removed." 5 René Mayer, French Prime Minister after January 8, 1953, had earned Eisenhower's praise for his earlier aid to NATO as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs (Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 395 and 759). In a message dated February 3 (AWF/I) Mayer had expressed thanks for the friendly message Dulles and Stassen had carried to Paris and reported that the French government "intends to show that it is resolute and reasonable. It has undertaken to pursue on its own account the European policy of its predecessors." For mid-February reports of the French parliamentary debate on the EDC see State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. V, Western European Security, pt. 1, pp. 612-17. 6 In his letter of February 11 (AWF/I) Adenauer spoke of "very fruitful" discussions with Dulles and Stassen and of the "urgently necessary union of the European peoples." Adenauer anticipated "ever-more intimate cooperation" between the Federal Republic and the United States. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Alfred Maximilian Gruenther, 19 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 46. 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/46.cfm <--PREV Doc #45  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #47

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