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Document
#189; May 14, 1953
To Edgar Newton Eisenhower
Series:
EM, AWF, Name Series
; Category:
Personal and confidential
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume
XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part
II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953
Chapter
3: "A time for continued vigilance"
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Dear Ed: I assure you that I simply cannot act as the final referee in every case where there arises difference of opinion between groups of people and responsible heads of governmental departments. Every day there is a flood of controversial questions coming in to Washington. They involve dams, roads, postoffices, ports, harbors, every conceivable kind of appointment, individuals already in government, and a thousand other instances of differences of opinion.1
In the case of Navy pre-emption of certain areas in Puget Sound, I placed the question in the hands of a man in whose judgment I trust implicitly. He is Secretary Bob Anderson of the Navy; a prominent lawyer, businessman, and citizen of the State of Texas. He believes in local rights and the responsibilities of local government. He is as far removed from a bureaucrat as anyone I can think of. He arrived at the judgment that there was nothing else the Navy could do but to pursue the course of action already decided upon in the Puget Sound area. I think he did obtain the assurance of the professionals that they would interfere with local activity as little as was humanly possible and still carry out their mission. But in the basic question he decided there was no way of avoiding the action indicated.2
Of course I am sorry that it does not meet the ideas of the citizens of Tacoma, but there it is--you would never expect me to be arbitrary in matters of this kind and render any decision or judgment against the best interests of the United States. I know that you did not ask this--but as put up to me by the Navy this is the issue that really becomes involved.
With all the best, As ever
Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Edgar Newton Eisenhower,
14 May 1953.
In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 189.
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/189.cfm
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