<--PREV Doc #192  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #194 Document #193; May 18, 1953 To Harry Amos Bullis Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 99-R ; 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"   Dear Harry:1 I emphatically agree with most of what you have to say in your letter of May ninth.2 I shall certainly take seriously your observation about the Judd case.3 With respect to McCarthy, I continue to believe that the President of the United States cannot afford to name names in opposing procedures, practices and methods in our government. This applies with special force when the individual concerned enjoys the immunity of a United States Senator. This particular individual wants, above all else, publicity. Nothing would probably please him more than to get the publicity that would be generated by public repudiation by the President.4 I do not mean that there is no possibility that I shall ever change my mind on this point. I merely mean that as of this moment, I consider that the wisest course of action is to continue to pursue a steady, positive policy in foreign relations, in legal procedures in cleaning out the insecure and the disloyal, and in all other areas where McCarthy seems to take such a specific and personal interest. My friends on the Hill tell me that of course, among other things, he wants to increase his appeal as an after-dinner speaker and so raise the fees that he charges. It is a sorry mess; at times one feels almost like hanging his head in shame when he reads some of the unreasoned, vicious outbursts of demagoguery that appear in our public prints. But whether a Presidential "crack down" would better, or would actually worsen, the situation, is a moot question. With all the best, As ever 1 Bullis was chairman of the board of General Mills, Inc., in Minneapolis, Minnesota (for background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. X-XIII). 2 Bullis's letter had touched on a number of subjects, among them his approval of the Administration's proposed tax and fiscal program and his view that the United States should keep up its military strength in the fight against communism (same file as document). 3 Republican Congressman Walter H. Judd (B.A. University of Nebraska 1920; M.D. 1923) of Minnesota had been a medical missionary in the Far East for more than ten years and had expressed concern about various aspects of American foreign policy in Asia since the mid-1940s (for background see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 276). Judd, who would be up for reelection in November 1954, was presently opposing the admission of Communist China to the United Nations. Bullis said that Judd "should be protected in case he should not achieve victory next year." For developments see no. 483. 4 Bullis urged Eisenhower to "crack down" on McCarthy, who he said had "unlimited personal ambitions, unmitigated gall, and unbounded selfishness." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Harry Amos Bullis, 18 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 193. 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/193.cfm <--PREV Doc #192  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #194

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