<--PREV Doc #122  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #124 Document #123; April 1, 1953 To Bernard Michael Shanley Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum 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   In Sherman Adams' absence, I bring to your attention a matter that has been bothering me a little. It is that we have not yet appointed a man to be Chief of the General Services Administration. We need a very good man, and we need him quickly. I would be particularly anxious to get somebody who is well versed in government and who would have an ambition to streamline the organization, even to the point of seriously curtailing, if not eliminating, its entire functions in government. One man who is, at one and the same time, disinterested and efficient and well acquainted with the subject is Major General Robert Littlejohn, Retired. He was once head of the War Assets Administration which was taken over by the General Services Administration. If we are in need of advice or information on the matter, you could possibly get in touch with him through the Department of the Army. He lives somewhere in Maryland.2 You might discuss this matter with the Bureau of the Budget. I believe that I have asked Joe Dodge to be on the look out for a good man.3 1 Shanley (LL.B. Fordham 1928), of Bernardsville, New Jersey, was Acting Special Counsel to the President. He had served as an adviser to Eisenhower's campaign committee in 1952 and had for four years been counsel to the New Jersey State Republican Committee. 2 Robert McGowan Littlejohn had headed the War Assets Administration from July 1946 until November 1947. He lived at Romar Farms, near Harwood, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. For further background on General Littlejohn see Eisenhower Papers, vols. I-XIII. 3 On April 17 Eisenhower would nominate Edmund F. Mansure, of Chicago, as General Services Administrator. Mansure (Dartmouth 1924) was chairman of the board of the E. L. Mansure Company, manufacturers of upholstery supplies. A Republican leader in Cook County, Illinois, he had served as secretary of the Illinois Republican Finance Committee. Confirmed on May 1 as GSA administrator, Mansure was then nominated to head the Defense Materiels Procurement Administration as well. The Senate would approve that nomination on May 28 (New York Times, Apr. 18, May 16, 29, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Bernard Michael Shanley, 1 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 123. 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/123.cfm <--PREV Doc #122  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #124

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission 1629 K Street, NW Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464