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Document
#1175; December 1, 1954
To Milton Stover Eisenhower
Series:
EM, AWF, Name Series
; Category:
Personal and confidential
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"
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Dear Milton: I admit that Harold Stassen could have avoided talking about ideas with respect to Asia that could damage our relationships in this hemisphere.1 We should not forget, however, that countries like Burma, Thailand, and the remaining parts of Indo-China are directly open to assault. This does not apply in South America. Sometimes I feel like paraphrasing an old saying and making it read, "The way of the giver is hard."
In the case of the Americas, I do believe that loans are more appropriate than grants. Gifts do not encourage a partnership effort. Loans, I think, are calculated to do so. The difference between South America and Asia, in my own mind, is this. In the case of South America we want to establish a healthy relationship that will be characterized by mutual cooperation and which will permanently endure. This will apply whether or not the Communist menace seems to increase or decrease in intensity.
In Asia we are primarily concerned with meeting a crisis, establishing firm and friendly governments, and making certain that the critical area of Indo-China and the surrounding islands and adjacent portions of the mainland do not fall into Communist hands. If the Communist menace should recede in the area, we would consider ourselves still friendly, but we would feel largely relieved of any obligation to help them economically or militarily.
Do you disagree with these ideas?2 As ever
Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Milton Stover Eisenhower,
1 December 1954.
In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1175.
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/1175.cfm
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