<--PREV Doc #1008  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1010 Document #1009; August 5, 1954 To Paul Alfred Hodgson Series: EM, AWF, Name 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 11: The "men in the Kremlin are not to be trusted"   Dear P. A.: There are times when I am convinced that there is a conspiracy against our getting to see each other. When I wrote to you on July nineteenth I thought there was a good chance that I should be in San Francisco for at least a portion of a day on my California trip.1 Now, for one reason or another, that part of the trip has been cancelled out, and I must fly directly from Walla Walla, Washington, to Los Angeles--and return from Los Angeles to Denver. All of this means, I suppose, that there will be no opportunity to see you.2 I have recently seen one of the original letters of George Washington, written in May, 1789, just after he had assumed the Presidency. He says in it that when he made the decision again to serve his country--this time as President--he "gave up all expectations of private happiness in this world."3 So perhaps I should withdraw the suspicion of conspiracy, and resign myself to the situation.4 At any rate, I am sad that I won't see you and Anne. Mamie joins me in warm regard to you both. As ever 1 See no. 984. 2 On August 7 (AWF/N) Hodgson would reply, "The thought of seeing you again was quite a tonic, though I didn't really believe in it. . . . I'm mighty sorry I shan't see you, but I certainly appreciate greatly the fact that you had the idea." For developments see no. 1439. 3 See Washington's letter of May 5, 1789, to Declaration of Independence signer Edward Rutledge of South Carolina in Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 2, pp. 217-18). 4 Eisenhower had received the Washington letter on July 28 (see Eisenhower to Terrell, Aug. 6, 1954; see also statement by the President as he studied text of letter from George Washington to Edward Rutledge, Aug. 5, 1954, both in AWF/D). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Paul Alfred Hodgson, 5 August 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1009. 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/1009.cfm <--PREV Doc #1008  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1010

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