<--PREV Doc #1218  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1220 Document #1219; December 28, 1954 To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, Administration 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"   Dear Cabot: I agree with your feeling about the release to the papers of the names of my stag dinner guests, particularly where the dinner has a political complexion.1 Nevertheless, I think it is absolutely impractical to keep the names out of the papers. If we do not release the names, we will create great mystery on the part of the Washington press corps, and each reporter will be trying for a scoop, to the embarrassment of a lot of people. The designation of the dinner as being attended by "1952 wheel horses" was the New York Times'--no one else's.2 Jim Duff has not been asked to one of the stag dinners because no member of Congress has been asked to an affair of this kind.3 If I started that practice I wouldn't know where to stop--and, after all, I can't have more than some two to three hundred guests in any one season. Tom Dewey was not asked in December because he was still a Governor, and I have never asked a Governor except in one instance where I had a "beef cattle dinner." At that one I asked Dan Thornton, because he is first of all a cow man, a Governor second.4 A day or two after the dinner on the 20th, my next lists went out. Tom Dewey's name was on one of them. I have not yet heard from him.5 Harold Talbott was asked because he was a member of the Administration and interested in politics. He was not asked merely because he raised money. Incidentally, Tom Pappas is on one of the next lists.6 To repeat, I am doing the best I can in this business, and if people are simply going to have hurt feelings because of a lack of immediate invitation, then I will just have to stop having dinners. Possibly it would be better for someone else to hold these affairs; Len Hall or Herb Brownell or Art Summerfield--but if I am to have them I repeat that I see no possibility of keeping them secret.7 Many thanks for writing, and again, my best wishes for a fine 1955. With warm regard, As ever 1 On December 20 Eisenhower had invited Lodge and seventeen other prominent Republicans, all of whom had been involved in his 1952 campaign, to a stag dinner at the White House. For a discussion of this "political group" see no. 1180. Although Lodge praised the event as a "vital first step" and a "great success," he criticized the decision to release the names of Eisenhower's guests to the press. Lodge worried that Eisenhower inadvertently had created "hurt feelings" among those who had worked on the 1952 campaign but were not invited to the dinner (Lodge to Eisenhower, Dec. 22, 1954, AWF/A; for background on Eisenhower's original campaign staff see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 537, 740, 789, and 798). 2 Lodge had specifically referred to a December 21 article in the New York Times entitled, "Eisenhower Dines '52 Wheel Horses." The paper had published the names and 1952 campaign titles of the dinner guests and asserted that "nearly all of the important political advisers to the President" had been invited. 3 In his December 22 letter, Lodge had told Eisenhower that he explained to Pennsylvania Senator James Duff and Thomas Dewey what had transpired at the dinner, adding that it was "a good thing" he had. 4 Thomas Dewey, three-term Governor of New York State, had declined to run for reelection in 1954. Colorado Governor Daniel Thornton had attended the President's beef-stew luncheon on September 27 (see no. 1065). 5 Dewey would attend a stag dinner on January 10, 1955. 6 Harold Talbott, Eisenhower's Secretary of the Air Force, had not been able to attend the dinner. A former business executive with extensive ties in the commerical and manufacturing world, Talbott had served as chair of the Republican National Finance Committee from 1948 to 1949. Lodge had complained that the publishing of Talbott's name was "likely to attract the attention of men who did yeoman work in the field of raising money, such as . . . Tom Pappas." Thomas Anthony Pappas, a food importer, was very active in charitable fund raising and in the Republican party. Eisenhower would have him as a guest at his next stag dinner. 7 In a reply to this letter, Lodge would concede that Eisenhower's explanation for releasing the names of dinner guests was "most convincing," but he would also urge the President "not to give out lists which are complete in every detail." He again criticized the New York Times for reporting the December 20 gathering as a political meeting. This, he said, created in "politically-minded men" a natural assumption that "plans for 1956 were being made." Members of Eisenhower's original headquarters group who were not invited, Lodge contended, were bound to wonder why. Nevertheless, Lodge told the President: "I hope you do not even consider the idea of giving up the stag dinners--unless, of course, they fatigue you. They are a tremendous asset and absolutely essential towards the accomplishment of what you have in mind" (Dec. 31, 1954, AWF/A). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 28 December 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1219. 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/1219.cfm <--PREV Doc #1218  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1220

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