<--PREV Doc #78  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #80 Document #79; March 13, 1953 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Personal and confidential 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   Memorandum for the Secretary of State: I am informed that the Secretary of State is responsible for the appointment of individuals on the Boundary Commission that works along our Mexican border.1 In connection with the work of this Commission, I am further told that there is being erected a dam called Falcon Dam.2 The government is apparently now engaged in a program of land purchase that extends far out and beyond the limits of the lake that will be created back of the dam. I am informed that this extra land involves forty-five thousand acres and its purchase is dispossessing a lot of people. One of our representatives on this Commission is a man named Lawson.3 Apparently he has just been reappointed for one year, even though, I am told, he is some seventy-four or seventy-five years old. It is alleged also that he is sponsoring the program of extra land purchase, even though from my viewpoint this would seem to be in violation of the policies that we have been advocating for many months. When you get time, will you have this business looked into?4 1 The International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, dated from 1889. It exercised treaty-enforcement authority and control over bridges, surveys, and monuments along the border between the two countries. The U.S. section, located in El Paso, Texas, comprised a commissioner (see below), two engineers, legal counsel, and several support personnel and reported to the Secretary of State. Eisenhower's source apparently was H. J. "Jack" Porter, a Texas friend who visited the White House the morning of March 13 (see also the preceding document). 2 By treaty agreement the United States and Mexico had undertaken the Falcon Dam project on the Rio Grande about seventy-five miles below Laredo, Texas. Designed primarily for agricultural irrigation, the dam also would provide electric power to the region and aid in flood control. It was due for completion in the fall of 1953 (New York Times, Oct. 20, 1953). 3 Lawrence Milton Lawson had studied at Stanford University before beginning a career as an irrigation engineer in 1903. He had been U.S. representative on the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, since 1927. 4 Replying on March 27 (AWF/D-H), Dulles wrote that in supervising construction of the Falcon Dam, the Boundary and Water Commission planned to seize 26,745 acres along the U.S. shore of the Rio Grande "for access and control." He noted that Porter already had raised queries about the extent of these land condemnations. Dulles had ordered an investigation to learn whether the seizures were essential and in the meantime had taken steps to limit them "to those parcels where flood danger is imminent. Any such land determined by the present investigation to be unnecessary will be restored," Dulles said. He promised he would so inform Porter (see no. 78) and also coordinate with Gabriel Hauge of the White House staff. Dulles admitted having recommended Lawson's reappointment to another one-year term in February. Lawson seemed "in vigorous health and had experience," the Secretary of State explained, and prominent Republican senators and the governor of Arizona had supported his candidacy. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To John Foster Dulles, 13 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 79. 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/79.cfm <--PREV Doc #78  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #80

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission 1629 K Street, NW Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464