<--PREV Doc #1147  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1149 Document #1148; November 8, 1954 To John Fitzgerald Kennedy Series: EM, WHCF, President's Personal File 1288 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 13: "A new phase of political experience"   Dear Senator Kennedy: I am sorry to learn that you have had to have some surgery and will be in the hospital for a few weeks.1 I hope your recovery will be swift and sure, and that you will be back in Washington by the opening of the next session.2 Please convey my warm greetings to your father, whom I have met, and to your charming bride.3 With best wishes, Sincerely 1 On October 21 Kennedy (Dem., Mass.) had undergone a spinal operation for an injury received during World War II (New York Times, Oct. 22, 1954). 2 The first session of the Eighty-fourth Congress would convene on January 5, 1955. Later this same day, Eisenhower would note Kennedy's absence while addressing the National Council of Catholic Women in Boston (New York Times, Nov. 9, 1954). 3 For background on Eisenhower's relationship with former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph Patrick Kennedy (A.B. Harvard 1912) see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 582. Senator Kennedy's wife, the former Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, would thank Eisenhower in an undated handwritten note (same file as document): "We were both so overwhelmed that anyone as busy and worried as you must be--would take the time to do something so thoughtful for someone who is sick. It is just another proof that you are the most wonderful President there could possibly be--and I feel very lucky to be living in the country that has you as its head." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 8 November 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1148. 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/1148.cfm <--PREV Doc #1147  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1149

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