<--PREV Doc #165  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #167 Document #166; April 29, 1953 To Alfred Maximilian Gruenther Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal and confidential 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 Al: Mamie and I received the notes that you sent to us. We are glad you like our associates; we find them very interesting people. Certainly, also, they are devoted and helpful.1 Mamie says that she is getting plans drawn for an additional storehouse up at the farm. This, I think, is to accommodate Grace's flea market products while she establishes her own American version, possibly in the courtyard of the Pentagon.2 You are growing too skillful in impressing others with your indispensability. The group that came back from Paris want to listen to no proposition except that you must come home and keep the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the straight and narrow.3 As you know, on the other hand, Monty predicts dire things will happen in NATO unless you stay over there.4 After you toss the coin and get the right answer, let me know what it is. Love to Grace, and all the best to you, As ever 1 Gruenther, who recently had visited Washington (see no. 126), had written on April 5 from Paris to thank the President for their relaxing time together and to praise the companionship of Republican Congressman Daniel A. Reed of New York, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Congressman Harold D. Cooley, a North Carolina Democrat, both of whom had accompanied the Gruenthers on the return journey. Reed and Cooley served as vice-presidents of a congressional standing committee on democratic legislatures, the Interparliamentary Union. On the seventeenth Gruenther had cabled congratulations on Eisenhower's peace speech (see no. 132. All correspondence is in AWF/A). 2 Eisenhower's reference was to Mrs. Gruenther's flea market ventures (for background see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 1052). 3 Eisenhower referred to the U.S. delegation to the NAC session in Paris, April 23-25 (see no. 157), and to General Omar N. Bradley's scheduled retirement as JCS Chairman (see nos. 28 and 103). On May 12, Eisenhower would complete a new cadre at the top of the U.S. command structure by nominating Admiral Arthur W. Radford as Bradley's successor and naming Gruenther Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, to succeed General Matthew B. Ridgway. Ridgway would become Army Chief of Staff. Admiral Robert B. Carney would leave his NATO command to serve as Chief of Naval Operations. General Nathan F. Twining (nominated May 7) would replace Hoyt S. Vandenberg as Air Force Chief of Staff at the end of June; other JCS changes would take effect in mid-August (New York Times, May 8, 13, July 1, Aug. 14, 1953). 4 Field Marshal Viscount Bernard Law Montgomery of Alamein was currently Deputy Supreme Allied Commander (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 2). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Alfred Maximilian Gruenther, 29 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 166. 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/166.cfm <--PREV Doc #165  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #167

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