<--PREV Doc #1848  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1850 Document #1849; April 25, 1956 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part IX: "Concerning my political intentions"; December 1955 to April 1956 Chapter 19: The goal: A "durable peace"   Dear Foster: In addition to the names I provided you in a memorandum of yesterday (previously agreed upon in a conference in my office) I send you herewith additional names suggested by the individuals indicated. One or two of these are duplications.1 Since our meeting yesterday I have had an additional idea on this matter. If the Commission we set up is to operate as exhaustively and formally as seemed to be indicated by the tenor of yesterday's meeting, then I believe that the Commission, fairly small in itself, could well make use of a device often employed in the past. It is that the Commission would set up a so-called "Advisory Group," the purpose of which would be to broaden the base of the personnel selected for investigating the whole matter and to provide a body that would do some promotional work in selling the conclusions to the public. The Randall Commission used such a body, the Administration did the same with respect to the Marshall Plan, the Hoover Commission likewise.2 I mention this idea at this time because as we think in terms of personnel, it is just possible that we would want to keep in mind the possible organization of two separate bodies, even though the second or advisory group would be set up by the Commission itself.3 With warm regard, As ever 1 On April 24 Eisenhower had met with Secretary Dulles, Vice-President Nixon, Under Secretary of State Hoover, Budget Director Percival F. Brundage, International Cooperation Administration Director John B. Hollister, and presidential assistants Wilton B. Persons and Joseph M. Dodge to discuss plans for a committee of distinguished citizens to evaluate the foreign aid program (Hoover, memorandums for record, Apr. 26, 30, 1956; and [Memorandum], Apr. 26, 1956; both in Dulles Papers, Subject Series: Foreign Aid Study Group; see also Telephone conversations, Eisenhower and Dulles, Apr. 20, 23, 1956, AWF/D; and Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1956, p. 429). We have been unable to locate the memorandum including the suggested names in AWF. 2 For background on the Randall Commission see no. 170; on the Marshall Plan see Galambos, Chief of Staff, no. 1482; and on the Hoover Commission see nos. 341 and 666. 3 Eisenhower would name Benjamin F. Fairless, former president and chairman of the board of the United States Steel Corporation, as coordinator of the President's Citizen Advisors on the Mutual Security Program. Among other members were John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; Whitelaw Reid, chairman of the board of the New York Herald Tribune; and Walter Bedell Smith, vice-chairman of the American Machine and Foundry Company (and former Under Secretary of State). The commission would not consult an independent staff of experts but would use a small staff recruited from the Executive Department (see Randall to Dulles, Aug. 28, 1956; and Hanes to Dulles, Aug. 28, 1956; both in Dulles Papers, Subject Series: Foreign Aid Study Group; State, Foreign Relations, 1955-1957, vol. X, Foreign Aid and Economic Defense Policy, pp. 100, 102-6, 118-23, 139-40; U.S. Department of State Bulletin 35, no. 902 [October 8, 1956], 551-52; no. 906 [November 5, 1956], 725-26; nos. 913 and 914 [December 24 and 31, 1956], 988-89; and New York Times, Dec. 10, 1956). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 25 April 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1849. 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/1849.cfm <--PREV Doc #1848  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1850

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