Presidential Papers, Doc#66 To John Hay Whitney, 3 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #66; March 3, 1953
To John Hay Whitney
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series
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 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles

 

Dear Jock:1 Beetle2 tells me that he has talked with you about taking over the direction of the State Department Point Four-TCA program.3 I understand that you were willing to do this but that you could hardly leave your business while Bill Jackson4 and Brownlee5 are still at work in Washington.

I want you to know that I appreciate very sincerely your willingness to help out in what is a very difficult and important assignment. It may be necessary to fill this post before your people return and you can clear yourself from the business responsibilities. If so, I shall consider you as in reserve and available on call for some of the tough jobs that are certain to come up in the future.6 Sincerely

1 Whitney, who was head of his own New York investment bank and an avid sportsman, had been an active supporter of the American Assembly and an early member of the Eisenhower-for-President movement (Galambos, Columbia University, nos. 1026 and 1079; Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 537). He had visited Eisenhower the morning of February 10. Walter Bedell Smith and Sherman Adams assisted in drafting this letter.

2 Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's wartime chief of staff and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was Under Secretary of State (Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 144 and 1022).

3 Since its creation in 1950, the Technical Cooperation Administration (TCA) had borne reponsibility for planning and executing technical foreign aid (U.S. Department of State, General Foreign Policy Series, no. 117, American Foreign Policy, 1950-1955, vol. II [Washington, D.C., 1957], p. 3055). President Truman had assigned the agency to the State Department in 1950. In early June, in reorganization plan 7, Eisenhower would recommend integrating the TCA--along with the Mutual Security and Economic Security agencies and other programs, including the Institute for Inter-American Affairs and the Israel Refugee Program--into the new Foreign Operations Administration (FOA). Congress approved the proposal in mid-July, and in early August the Senate confirmed Eisenhower's nomination of Harold E. Stassen as FOA Director (New York Times, June 2, July 16, 18, Aug. 2, 1953).

4 William H. Jackson (see no. 8).

5 James Forbis Brownlee, special consultant to the director, Office of Defense Mobilization, earlier had served on the Committee for Economic Development (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 164).

6 In August Whitney would accept membership on a foreign-economic-policy study commission (see no. 170).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Hay Whitney, 3 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 66. 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/66.cfm

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