Presidential Papers, Doc#289 Personal and confidential To John Allen Krout, 30 June 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Doc #290

Document #289; June 30, 1953
To John Allen Krout
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series: Columbia--Hall of Our History ; 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 4: Striving for Unity

 

Dear John:1 As you know, I shall be interested, at the proper time, in attempting to do my part in establishing a custom of having the President of the United States serve ex-officio as the Honorary President of The Hall of Our History.2 However, I believe that this intention should be held in abeyance until after your organization is pretty well firmed up as to personnel and is off to an established start. For this there seems to me to be two reasons: (1) We should not use the office of the Presidency as a lure for getting anyone to join out of political or other loyalty, and (2) The acceptance of the invitation by the President should be based upon the prior acceptance of a considerable number of prominent citizens.

This has nothing to do with my personal feeling. If I were a private citizen I should be helping on the job whether or not you invited me into the organization. I am merely thinking of what we must do to meet the requirements of this particular situation.

I repeat that I am vitally interested in the whole project.3

With warm personal regard, Sincerely

1 Krout was associate provost and dean of the graduate faculty at Columbia University (for background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. X-XIII). He had written Eisenhower on June 24 (AWF/N: Columbia--Hall of our History).

2 The Hall of Our History was to be a huge granite monument erected on Pine Mountain, Georgia, as a memorial to the nation's history, from its discovery through the end of World War II. A group of eminent Americans had agreed to participate in and promote the project (see Robert E. Sherwood, "The Big Stone Book," American Heritage 5, no. 2 [1953], 3).

Eisenhower had asked C. D. Jackson for advice regarding Krout's invitation. Urging his acceptance, Jackson wrote, "To be sure, the project is still in the embryonic stage, but the auspices are such, and the sponsorship is such, that I don't see how it can get off the rails or die aborning" (Eisenhower to Jackson, June 25, 1953, and Jackson to Eisenhower, June 29, 1953, AWF/N: Columbia--Hall of Our History).

3 The project would fail for lack of funds ("Fall of the Hall," Time, May 10, 1954, 90).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To John Allen Krout, 30 June 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 289. 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/289.cfm

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