<--PREV Doc #353  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #355 Document #354; July 28, 1953 To Alexander Wiley Series: EM, AWF, Name Series 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 5: "So much to do in the world"   Dear Alec: Today Foster Dulles, who was in my office on some business matters, took occasion to praise in extravagant terms your service as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee over the past six months.1 I just wanted to tell you how very greatly pleased I am that you and Foster have been able to see eye to eye and work together as such an effective team in carrying on these delicate and important activities. Of course, I have [not] personally been following the record that is made on the floor of the Senate, but it was encouraging to have evidence from Foster that you are fully as effective in Committee as you are in the more public places. You have been a great champion of the principles that the entire Administration believes outline the best interests of the United States in the foreign field.2 With warm personal regard, Sincerely 1 The Secretary of State met with the President the afternoon of the twenty-eighth. 2 This letter was undoubtedly appreciated by Senator Wiley, who in June had been harshly censured by four thousand Wisconsin Republicans at their state convention in Madison for his refusal to support the controversial Bricker amendment, limiting the President's treaty-making powers, and his cosponsorship of the Administration's bill to admit additional European immigrants (see nos. 233 and 101). The resolution calling for reconsideration of Wiley's stand on those issues and a flurry of telegrams urging his impeachment had captured headlines in the national press. Calling the episode a "stiletto attack--a cowardly, dastardly stab in the back," Wiley denounced his critics in a major foreign-policy speech of June 26 (see no. 297). He urged Eisenhower to discipline "saboteurs, malcontents and goldbricks" in the Republican party and to work for "real and continuing cooperation" between both political parties (see "GOP Must Be a Team," Newsweek, June 13, 1953; and New York Times, June 14, 20, 24, 27, 1953). Once an avowed isolationist, Wiley was now viewed by the Eisenhower Administration as a moderate, bipartisan internationalist. He had sponsored a measure in support of the St. Lawrence Seaway project (see no. 114), had become concerned about the development of atomic power by other nations, and had shown deep interest in review studies of the U.N. Charter (see, e.g., "International Development of Atomic Energy," U.S. Department of State Bulletin 29, no. 741 [September 7, 1953], 330-31, and "Review of U.N. Charter," ibid., 310-11). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Alexander Wiley, 28 July 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 354. 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/354.cfm <--PREV Doc #353  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #355

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