Presidential Papers, Doc#115 Personal and confidential To George Arthur Sloan, 30 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #115; March 30, 1953
To George Arthur Sloan
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series ; Category: Personal and confidential
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 George: Thank you very much for your two notes of the twenty-sixth.1

With respect to the information passed on to you by Mr. Hollister, I am very much in accord with what he has to say about our need for a man with a comprehensive legislative background. He might have added that the man ought also to be a genius in "winning friends and influencing people."2 Actually, he should also be the Chairman of the Republican National Committee because then he would be in the proper place to coordinate all details of patronage and so on--and these are always troublesome.3

As for slowness in taking a position, I have the grave fault of always wanting to know what is right in any case; if it were simply a matter of determining what was politically expedient, I could operate much more rapidly.4

I shall tell Governor Stassen of your interest in the reports submitted by the teams he sent abroad.5 If any report is printed for such use, I am sure he will send you one.

Again my thanks for writing. Sincerely

1 Both in AWF/N; see below.

2 Sloan had written one message after a luncheon with John Baker Hollister (LL.B. Harvard 1915), former Republican congressman and a partner in Senator Taft's Cincinnati law firm. Hollister recently had spent a weekend at Taft's Washington home, where the senator had hosted a dinner party for several of his political friends. Sloan repeated Hollister's report that Taft "was favorably impressed" with the Eisenhower Administration. Several men at the dinner, including Taft, nonetheless had remarked that the President needed someone with extensive legislative experience to act as liaison between the White House and Capitol Hill, particularly to serve "on the Hill." Brigadier General Wilton B. "Jerry" Persons currently served as White House-congressional liaison.

3 See the following document.

4 Eisenhower, while thorough in studying issues, sometimes had "taken too much time before announcing a position," some of Taft's guests had stated.

5 In a second note Sloan expressed his deep interest in the findings of fifty-five businessmen and financiers whom Mutual Security Agency Director Stassen in February had sent abroad (in eleven teams) to survey the U.S. foreign-aid program and who had met with the President on March 24. Stassen would release the group's report on May 9 (New York Times, Feb. 10, May 8, 1953). The MSA budget and likely cuts in MSA spending had been discussed at recent National Security Council meetings and also came up at this day's conference with legislative leaders (NSC meeting minutes, Mar. 5, 19, 26, 1953, AWF/NSC; New York Times, Mar. 31, 1953).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To George Arthur Sloan, 30 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 115. 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/115.cfm

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