<--PREV Doc #1882  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1884 Document #1883; May 24, 1956 To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956 Chapter 20: Confronting "great risks"   Dear Cabot: I have just had a talk with Foster on the subject matter of your letters of May eleventh and seventeenth.1 He agrees that a meeting of the minds on this subject must be achieved through some kind of conference such as you suggest.2 He does point out, however, that such a discussion, if fruitful, would be carried on under such circumstances and at such length that it could not possibly be kept secret. Therefore, it could have an adverse effect, at this moment, on the bill we are trying to fight through Congress.3 He believes under the circumstances that such a conference should take place soon after Congress adjourns. I should like for you to keep this matter in mind and when Congress adjourns, or possibly even after the Mutual Security bill is out of the way, that you ask Foster to invite in for a talk all the men named in your letter.4 With warm regard, As ever 1 Lodge's May 11 letter (AWF/A) expressed his reaction to a letter Treasury Secretary George Humphrey had sent to Eisenhower (with a copy to Lodge) regarding the concept of multilateral economic aid under the auspices of the United Nations (see no. 1864 for background). Humphrey had argued that the framework for the dissemination of multilateral aid already existed in the World Bank, whose funds were supplied by the participating countries. The United States also contributed to the International Finance Corporation and the International Monetary Fund, which also provided multilateral aid. Humphrey was opposed to the establishment of additional agencies for dispensing aid, particularly the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED). Humphrey feared that the United States would provide "the great bulk of controvertible dollars" to these new agencies, while other countries would "supply the majority of the board of directors to dispense it" (see Humphrey to Eisenhower, May 7, 1956; and Eisenhower to Humphrey, May 8, 1956, both in AWF/A). "The subject of economic aid to underdeveloped countries cannot be dealt with adequately soley from the standpoint of so-called `orthodox' financing," Lodge told Eisenhower, "but must be viewed from the standpoint of the Soviet threat." Lodge's proposal was "markedly dissimilar" from the SUNFED program, he said, and in no way competed with the established agencies Humphrey had mentioned; it was "designed entirely to fill the gaps" for such infrastructure projects as highways and harbors. Eisenhower had asked Lodge to send a copy of his letter to Humphrey. "I think he should have your thinking on this matter," he wrote, "and I would prefer it come directly from you" (Eisenhower to Lodge, May 14, 1956, AWF/A; see also State, Foreign Relations, 1955-1957, vol. IX, Foreign Economic Policy; Foreign Information Program, pp. 359-61, 364-66, 370-78). 2 In his letter of May 17 Lodge had suggested a meeting with Secretaries Dulles and Humphrey, Under Secretary of State Herbert Hoover, Jr., International Cooperation Administration Director John Hollister, and Special Presidential Assistant William Jackson. "I am sure that once this idea gets `on the table' we can really settle things," he said (AWF/A). 3 On the Mutual Security bill see no. 1893; see also Memorandum of Conversation, May 24, 1956, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series; and Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XII, 1956, pp. 418-27). 4 Ambassador Lodge would meet with the members of the President's Citizen Advisers on the Mutual Security Program to discuss U.S. participation in SUNFED on November 30 (see State, Foreign Relations, 1955-1957, vol. IX, Foreign Economic Policy; Foreign Information Program, pp. 395-401; see also no. 1849). For developments see no. 2141. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 24 May 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1883. 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/1883.cfm <--PREV Doc #1882  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1884

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