Presidential Papers, Doc#1039 To John Foster Dulles, 28 August 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower

Document #1039; August 28, 1954
To John Foster Dulles
Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series

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 131: The "men in the Kremlin are not to be trusted"

 

Dear Foster: Herewith is a document that will have a lot of interest for you--even if it gets you fairly well irritated.1 When you have finished with it, merely throw it away, or dispose of it otherwise as you please.

The one reason I send it along to you is that the writer, no matter how mistaken he may be, is a very keen individual and a thoroughly loyal American. I have known him for some years and always enjoy talking to him.2 As you will note in the reply I made to the man who gave me the document, there are whole sections with which I violently disagree, but at the same time I really value--in this job--criticism far more than I do commendation.

It occurs to me you might find time to read it on your long plane trip, so I take this method of getting it to you.3

With warm regard, As ever

1 Eisenhower had enclosed a long memorandum that his friend Edward J. Bermingham had sent him on August 19; see the preceding document.

2 Eisenhower had known Alexander Makinsky, author of the memorandum, in Europe during his tenure as SACEUR (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, p. 1570; see also Eisenhower to Bermingham, July 25, 1956, AWF/D).

3 "I have read, and dispensed with, the long memorandum on foreign policy which you sent me," Dulles would write en route to Manila for the signing of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. It was, he said "replete with misinformation" regarding Indochina, the participitants in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, British diplomatic maneuvers in Suez and Iran, French Prime Minister Mendès-France's intentions regarding the European Defense Community, and the United States's approach toward colonialism. "I could continue," Dulles concluded, "but this is perhaps enough" (Dulles to Eisenhower, Sept. 1, 1954, AWF/D-H). For more on Makinsky's opinions see no. 1062, and for background on SEATO see no. 974.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 28 August 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1039. 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/1039.cfm

 


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