<--PREV Doc #1535  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1537 Document #1536; August 1, 1955 To E. Roland Harriman Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 116-H-7 The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part VIII: Toward "statesmanship of a high order"; June 1955 to November 1955 Chapter 16: Summitry at Geneva   Dear Mr. Harriman:1 With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, on July 14, 1955 I ratified, on behalf of the Government of the United States, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of war victims.2 Instruments of ratification have been transmitted to the American Embassy at Bern for deposit with the Swiss Federal Council. The Geneva Conventions of 1949, containing some 429 Articles, are an outgrowth of the basic humanitarian considerations which underlay the ten Articles comprising the first Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, commonly referred to throughout the world as the "Treaty of the Red Cross." The purpose of that treaty was to relieve the suffering of sick and wounded members of military forces in war. The new Conventions, elaborated in the light of wartime experiences, seek to meet present-day requirements for the relief of physical suffering and moral degradation so often in the past experienced by victims of war, both military and civilian. The Geneva Conventions are fashioned primarily to meet universal humanitarian aspirations and needs. This Government was among those to seek the revision and extension of the preceding treaties which resulted in the drafting of the present Conventions. In this connection, I take special pleasure in the fact that the Government had the fullest cooperation and assistance from the American National Red Cross. It is a happy coincidence that the ratification of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 by the United States Government occurs on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the American Red Cross, and on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the American National Red Cross by Congress as the authorized volunteer agency to assist the Government in carrying out the duties and responsibilities assumed under the Red Cross Conventions.3 I am sure that the American National Red Cross will be pleased to learn on its anniversary that the United States has joined the other forty-eight nations of the world who have become Parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of war victims.4 Sincerely 1 The State Department drafted this letter to Harriman, Chairman of the The American National Red Cross (see Dulles to Eisenhower, July 28, 1955, same file as document). 2 The Senate had voted unanimously to accept the Conventions on July 6. For background see U.S. Department of State Bulletin 33, no. 837 (July 11, 1955), 69-79. 3 Part of this paragraph originally read: ". . . the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the American Red Cross by Congress as the authorized volunteer agency to assist the Government in carrying out the duties and responsibilities assumed under the Red Cross Conventions." Officials at the Red Cross organization had noted this "minor error of fact" and the State Department would ask that the White House make the change in the published version of the letter (Barnes to Snyder, Aug. 2, 1955, same file as document; see also McIlvaine to Hagerty, Sept. 8, 1955, ibid.; and U.S. Department of State Bulletin 33, no. 847 [Sept. 19, 1955], 454-55). 4 "All of us in the Red Cross are determined to make every effort to merit the continued confidence of the Government," Harriman would answer, "and to assist it in every way to discharge the responsibilities which, together with 48 other nations, it has assumed under the new humanitarian Conventions" (Harriman to Eisenhower, Aug. 4, 1955, same file as document). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To E. Roland Harriman, 1 August 1955. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1536. 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/1536.cfm <--PREV Doc #1535  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1537

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