<--PREV Doc #106  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #108 Document #107; March 26, 1953 To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Top secret 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 Cabot: Thank you very much for your interest[ing] account of your luncheon with Jebb and Gromyko. You said exactly the right things, and I will be quite interested to see whether there is any "follow-up" from the Russian side.1 So far as the post of Secretary General of the United Nations is concerned, I think I am too ignorant of the duties of the office to form a personal conviction as to the identity of a satisfactory occupant.2 At least I would not have a great deal of confidence in my own conclusion. If the job is largely honorary--by which I mean if the work is really done by a group of more or less permanently fixed subordinates--then almost any individual of stature would be acceptable. If, on the other hand, real administrative and executive ability is required, as well as a reputation for accomplishment, then we would need another type. When you have time to write to me, I would appreciate it if you would tell me a little more about the required qualifications in that post. With warm regard, Sincerely 1 The undated cover letter to this memorandum (which is not in EM) noted that the planned meeting with Russian representatives had taken place "today." In those talks Lodge doubtless covered many of the same points he made in his March 26 remarks to the U.N. General Assembly Political and Security Committee. In his twenty-five-minute speech Lodge defended the Mutual Security Act and U.S. aid to refugees from Communist Eastern Europe; he scored Soviet tyranny at home and imperialism abroad. Lodge nonetheless welcomed "peaceful settlements" and "honest negotiations" with the new Soviet leadership. "We will meet the Soviet Union half way at any time," he declared. Sir Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb represented the United Kingdom at the United Nations and in his own remarks this same day said, "It is for the other side to make clear by their deeds that the climate is changing." Meanwhile, Andrei Andreevich Gromyko, Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain, had arrived in New York on March 7 as temporary chief of the Soviet U.N. delegation and was scheduled to depart for London on March 27 (New York Times, Mar. 8, 26, 1953). 2 On April 7 the U.N. General Assembly would elect Swedish diplomat and economist Dag Hammarskjold as Secretary-General. He succeeded Trygve Lei, of Norway, first elected in February 1946 (ibid., Apr. 8, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Top secret To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 26 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 107. 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/107.cfm <--PREV Doc #106  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #108

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