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Document
#1109; October 11, 1954
To Leonard Wood Hall
Series:
EM, AWF, Administration Series
; Category:
Personal
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume
XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part
VI: Crises Abroad, Party Problems at Home; September 1954 to December 1954
Chapter
132: Asia: A "boiling kettle of possible trouble"
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Dear Len:1 Two suggestions have come to me, both of which seem to have considerable merit. They were originally proposed early in the year, and you may already have them under way.2
One is that you manage to make it clear, in a press conference, that the election this year is not a vote of confidence in me, and that the personal popularity of the individual candidates for the House and Senate--and the local issues--play a determining part. I think this is important, not for any damaging effect it might have upon me, but I do believe that should there be Republican losses and should they be "blamed" on me, my effectiveness would be considerably impaired.
The other suggestion is that we should have a list of all Democrats who have at any time said they would support all or part of the Administration's program. After the election this list could be announced, as a supplement to the list of Republicans elected.
I pass these recommendations along to you for whatever action you want to take. As I say, offhand they seem to me sound.3 Sincerely
Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Leonard Wood Hall,
11 October 1954.
In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1109.
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/1109.cfm
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