<--PREV Doc #5  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #7 Document #6; January 23, 1953 To Harry S. Truman Series: EM, Diaries 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 Mr. President:1 This note is to express my appreciation for the very many courtesies you extended to me and mine during the final stages of your Administration.2 The efforts you made to assure the orderly transfer of government, from your Administration to this one, are largely a matter of public knowledge but I am personally aware of the fact that you went to far greater trouble to accomplish this than almost anyone else could have known. On the personal side, I especially want to thank you for your thoughtfulness in ordering my son home from Korea for the Inauguration; and even more especially for not allowing either him or me to know that you had done so.3 I sincerely wish for you many years of happy and useful work; and of course, Mamie joins me in sending affectionate greetings to the ladies of your family. With best wishes,4 Sincerely 1 On the strain political campaigning had produced in Eisenhower's relationship with Truman see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, esp. nos. 913, 936, 960, and 963. See also Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. II, The President, pp. 13-15. 2 On the transition from Democratic to Republican administrations see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 973, 975-76, 978, 980-82. In the draft to this sentence, Eisenhower crossed out the word "deep" before "appreciation," along with "and kindnesses" after "courtesies." In the following sentence he dropped "many" before "efforts." 3 Neither Eisenhower nor his son John had expected that they would be together for the inaugural festivities. On January 8 Major Eisenhower, recently named acting intelligence officer for the 3d Infantry Division, had received a telegram ordering him back to Washington. Worried that the absence might mean losing his new assignment, he immediately had sent his father a "message of protest." He received no reply, he recalled, but after assurances that he could return to his Korean post, he flew home for the family reunion. His father did not at first know who had issued the orders. On Inauguration Day, riding with Truman to the Capitol, Eisenhower asked who had sent his son home. Truman answered simply, "I did" (John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal [New York, 1974], pp. 152-53, 155; Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 1019 and 1023; Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, p. 101. For Truman's somewhat different account see Harry S. Truman, Mr. Citizen [New York, 1953], p. 15). 4 In Truman's handwritten reply (Jan. 28, EM, Diaries) he thanked Eisenhower for his "good letter." "I would never have mentioned the incident of your son," he added, "had you not asked me about it." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Harry S. Truman, 23 January 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 6. 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/6.cfm <--PREV Doc #5  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #7

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