<--PREV Doc #121  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #123 Document #122; April 1, 1953 To Joseph Raymond McCarthy Series: EM, AWF, Microfilm: Official Files 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 Senator: Thank you very much for your letter explaining your purposes with respect to certain ship owners.1 I shall show your letter to Governor Stassen when he returns from a trip that he is currently making to Michigan. Quite naturally, I am anxious to see that there is no unnecessary misunderstanding or confusion in the functioning of our government; I am equally anxious that no unnecessary disagreements arise among members or sections of our Party. I understand that you were talking today to the Secretary of State, and I assume that you are making to him a presentation somewhat similar to that contained in your letter to me.2 With renewed thanks for your courtesy, Sincerely 1 On March 31 McCarthy had written to give the President the "facts as they are" concerning disclosures (recently the topic of hearings before McCarthy's Senate Permanent Investigating Subcommittee) that foreign shipping firms were delivering strategic materials to Eastern Europe and Red China, some of them using war-surplus vessels on which the United States still held mortgages. Early in March McCarthy had announced plans to pursue the matter, which opponents of foreign aid perennially had tied to the Mutual Security program; in 1951 conservative Republicans had succeeded in passing into law a strict prohibition against military or economic MSA aid to any country whose vessels engaged in trade with Communist nations. According to figures that the Defense Department furnished McCarthy, 52 of the offending vessels in 1953 were of Greek registry, 40 were Italian, and 4 were French. On March 20 the U.S. Maritime Administration had declared mortgages on 14 Greek ships in default, and the following day the Greek government proposed legislation designed to penalize the owners of Greek-registered ships carrying military supplies to Iron Curtain countries. McCarthy announced on the twenty-seventh that his staff had secured an agreement with the Greek owners of 242 merchant ships not to trade with the Soviet bloc, Red China, or North Korea. He claimed that the pledge "should result in a reduction of 10 to 45 percent in the tonnage of supplies now going to Communist destinations." The State Department had known nothing of these negotiations, which had been secret, McCarthy said, because of their "extremely delicate nature." On March 29 an unnamed Eisenhower Administration official had described McCarthy's agreement as "phony" and "irregular," and the next day MSA Director Harold E. Stassen, in testimony before McCarthy's committee, had criticized the pact with Greek shippers. "You are in effect undermining and are harmful to our objective," Stassen had said. He had asked McCarthy whether his agreement "was accompanied by a promise that those Greek shipowners who joined it would not be investigated," a query McCarthy indignantly had refused to answer (New York Times, Mar. 10, 21, 22, 29, 30, 31, 1953). McCarthy's letter to the President defended his committee's actions. Because the government was having trouble policing the Greek firms, he said, his committee had subpoenaed the Greek shipowners who were reachable "and urged them to discontinue shipments, not merely to Red China but also shipments between the Soviet bloc nations." McCarthy reported that shipowners in New York had then decided to end such trade. "No agreement as such was made with the Committee, nor did the Committee assume any obligation. We did work toward getting the Greek ship owners to make this agreement among themselves." He believed the New York owners could extend their voluntary pact to their countrymen located in London, but he had asked his staff to put off any dealings with the British-based companies until he met with Secretary of State Dulles (see below). McCarthy stressed that he and his staff had made no contact with representatives of foreign governments (which would have violated federal law) and had made no promises to the shipowners or entered into any agreement with them (letter in AWF/M: OF). 2 Dulles and McCarthy met for lunch this same day. Afterward the State Department issued a report emphasizing the points of agreement between them on "measures for the control of trade with countries of the Communist bloc." Dulles outlined to McCarthy the department's efforts and stressed Stassen's responsibilities in this area, while welcoming the "cooperation and advice of members of Congress." According to the statement, the Secretary of State also "pointed out the dangers that would result if Congressional committees entered into the field of foreign relations which is in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Chief Executive. Senator McCarthy stated that he was aware of these considerations and had no desire or intention to act contary to them." Dulles thanked McCarthy for his committee's findings. At Eisenhower's April 2 news conference he would accept the view that the Greek shipowners made their declarations voluntarily and would deny that McCarthy's actions had "undermined" Administration policy (U.S. Department of State Bulletin 28, no. 717 [March 23, 1953], 435-36; New York Times, Apr. 2, 3, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Joseph Raymond McCarthy, 1 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 122. 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/122.cfm <--PREV Doc #121  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #123

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