<--PREV Doc #1350  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1352 Document #1351; March 18, 1955 To Omar Nelson Bradley Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part VII: "Nothing could be worse than global war"; January 1955 to May 1955 Chapter 15: Searching "for an honorable peace"   Dear Brad: At a dinner I attended last night I happened to see Emil Schram.1 His understanding of the cause of the separation of the United Service Organization and the United Defense Fund is considerably different from yours.2 He completely accepted the fact that I could not transfer the April nineteenth engagement to the USO--that arrangements I had made since your cancellation would have to stand.3 However, he was very concerned if I should decline to be Honorary Chairman of the USO after I had held that same office with the UDF and I had so often and so earnestly commended USO Fund drives. Consequently, since we do want to keep these people working, I feel that I should go along.4 Mr. Schram himself, as you must know, is a very splendid citizen. With warm regard, As ever 1 In 1953 former president of the New York Stock Exchange Emil Schram became head of the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO), a confederation of agencies designed to provide a variety of social and welfare services for the armed forces. Omar Bradley had been National Campaign Chairman of the USO's primary financial supporter, the United Defense Fund (UDF), since February 1954 (see Eisenhower to Bradley, Feb. 10, 1954; and Bradley to Eisenhower, Feb. 15, 1954, both in WHCF/OF 233). The dinner to which Eisenhower referred had been sponsored by the Business Advisory Council. 2 Established in 1950 to coordinate welfare activities for the USO and other defense related organizations, the UDF directed nearly all of the money it collected to the USO. Conflicts between the two organizations began as early as 1951, when USO representatives claimed they wanted to loosen UDF control over their budget by collecting money directly from contributors. By 1954, UDF contributors, aware that most UDF money was going to the USO, suggested that the two organizations merge. When the two groups could not reach an agreement, the USO withdrew from UDF. On March 10, the UDF announced its intention to disband at the end of the year. We have been unable to locate documentation concerning either Bradley or Schram's version of these events (Marvin Andrew Palecek, "The United Defense Fund: A Study of the Coordination of Voluntary Welfare Services During Wartime," [Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1969], pp. 6-8; 196-205, and New York Times, Mar. 11, 1955). 3 On April 19 Eisenhower would be in Augusta, Georgia, golfing and fishing with several of his close friends. 4 In March 1954 Eisenhower had agreed to serve as honorary chairman of the UDF (Eisenhower to Bradley, Mar. 11, 1954, WHCF/OF 233). He would write to Schram this same day to accept the position as honorary chairman of the USO board of governors for a period of one year (AWF/D). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Omar Nelson Bradley, 18 March 1955. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1351. 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/1351.cfm <--PREV Doc #1350  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1352

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