<--PREV Doc #906  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #908 Document #907; May 31, 1954 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Personal The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part V: Maintaining "a united defense"; April 1954 to August 1954 Chapter 10: Losing the war "they could not win"   Dear Foster: I have a memorandum from Robert Murphy recommending that President Magloire of Haiti be invited to visit the United States some time this fall.1 During the period of October and November I have both the Queen Mother and President Tubman of Liberia on the list for house guests.2 It seems to me this business of entertaining Heads of State can be run into the ground a little bit; in fact the more we do of it, the more there seems to be done. Would there be any way of doing some of these things without going through the agony of the state dinner and then going to dinner at the appropriate embassy within the next day or so? When the time permits, I should like to talk to you about this.3 As ever 1 Murphy, Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, had written that "the Haitian Government has long expressed an interest in having President Magloire make such a visit, as has the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" (May 28, 1954, AWF/D-H). Citing Haiti's "reasonably democratic" government, its opposition to communism, and its encouragement of foreign investment, Murphy endorsed the visit as a "contribution to the continuing stability of his Government" and a demonstration that the United States values "the friendship of all countries however poor or small they may be." 2 The Queen Mother would begin her visit on November 4, and the Liberian President on October 18 (see Washington to Eisenhower, Mar. 17, 1954; Dulles to Eisenhower, Apr. 3, 1954; and Eisenhower to Tubman, Apr. 7, 1954, WHCF/CF: State Dept.). 3 The State Department had limited its recommendations for state visits to four a year, Dulles would answer, adding that he would ask his "people to resist these inevitable pressures as much as possible" (Dulles to Eisenhower, June 16, 1954, AWF/D-H). Regarding the "`agony' of reciprocal dinners," he continued, "I have checked into this with our Protocol people and they tell me that there can be no relief on official dinners in connection with a state visit. However, this sort of thing can be curtailed on the less formal visits." Dulles said that he had postponed the Magloire visit until January 26, 1955, and asked that Eisenhower approve the invitation, "not only for reasons mentioned in Mr. Murphy's memorandum of May 28, but also because of the real importance of our making a gesture towards a small Latin American republic at this particularly troubled time in that area." For developments see no. 924. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To John Foster Dulles, 31 May 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 907. 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/907.cfm <--PREV Doc #906  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #908

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