<--PREV Doc #148  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #150 Document #149; April 22, 1953 To Edward John Bermingham Series: EM, AWF, Name Series 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 Ed: In further answer to your letter of April ninth, the State Department has made several comments which I feel are sound.1 They believe that setting up any type of outside group at the time when we are just sending a new Ambassador to Mexico would have the effect of undercutting Francis White's position.2 They also feel that the Mexicans, with their traditional sensitivity about outside interference in their internal affairs, would be adverse to any joint commission outside the regular diplomatic establishment. Beyond all this, I have the utmost confidence that, in Francis White, we have a man who is skilled in negotiation, who fully understands Latin Americans and who has broad business experience, and I know that he has sound ideas concerning our Mexican policy. I appreciate having your suggestions on the problem of our relations with Mexico, which, as you know, are very important to me.3 With warm personal regard, As ever 1 Bermingham had written to stress the need for a long-range program for developing the Mexican economy and building closer U.S.-Mexican ties. He believed the work could be done through a new U.S. ambassador, ideally a "man of imagination, tact, and a broad business outlook"; he made himself available for "liaison and guidance." On April 13 Eisenhower had acknowledged the message and reported sending to the State Department for consideration Bermingham's suggestion that someone, or perhaps one American and one Mexican, prepare the general outlines of such a program. Dulles's note of April 20 had enclosed a draft response to Bermingham (all correspondence in AWF/N). 2 Francis White (Ph.B. Sheffield Scientific School 1913), a career Foreign Service officer with extensive experience in Latin American affairs, had been an assistant secretary of state in the Hoover Administration and from 1934 to 1942 president of the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council in Baltimore. He had been sworn in as Ambassador to Mexico on March 30 and visited the President on April 11; he would arrive in Mexico City late on April 23 (New York Times, Mar. 31, Apr. 12, 23, 1953). 3 Bermingham would write again on the subject on April 23, stating that he and the State Department appeared to be approaching Mexico "through different colored lenses. Mexico is an asset, not a liability," he would argue; the Mexicans "ardently" wanted U.S. credit and investments. He believed that Pemex (the Mexican oil company) and other industries could secure private sources of capital if only American investors properly understood Mexican plans for development and loan repayment and the "advantages to us of a prosperous Mexico." He admitted strong U.S. influence in Mexico in the past and growing native sensitivity in favor of leaving Mexico for the Mexicans. Bermingham would ask the President, "Is this not the meat of what I am trying to see you achieve--to take the United States Government out of the Mexican business, just as you are so successfully doing at home?" Eisenhower would forward this letter to Dulles and write Bermingham on April 27 to agree with his "implication that the attitude possibly has been a bit negative here in Washington. I shall do my best to cure it," he promised. In a memorandum the following day (AWF/D-H) Dulles would report that he had asked the Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs to "get in touch" with Bermingham to explore this subject. Dulles believed "such a discussion would be useful on both sides." For further developments see no. 214. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Edward John Bermingham, 22 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 149. 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/149.cfm <--PREV Doc #148  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #150

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