Presidential Papers, Doc#435 Memorandum To Emmet John Hughes, 28 September 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
<--PREV
Doc #434		  |  Memorial Commission
Home Page		  |  First Term
Table of Contents		  |  Presidential Papers
Home Page 		 | 
Doc#
 |  NEXT-->
Doc #436

Document #435; September 28, 1953
To Emmet John Hughes
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958
Chapter 6: Building strength when there is "no perfect answer"

 

Please circulate the quotation given below as far as necessary. It is a criticism received from a man very experienced in such matters.1

". . . I suggest you do in your speeches as you do in your conversation--introduce here and there immediate and practical material to go with the important abstractions you lay down. In other words, the best way to avoid the danger of the platitude is to be specific and realistic. This is not to say that the speech was platitudinous, but it is always wise to escape from the charge of preaching the Counsel of Perfection."

1 In a letter of September 24 (AWF/N) public relations and policy consultant Herbert Bayard Swope had commended Eisenhower for the speech he had delivered at a Republican party dinner in the Boston Garden on September 21 before five thousand people and a nationwide television and radio audience (New York Times, Sept. 22, 1953). Hughes, who had resigned as presidential speechwriter on September 23, was apparently familiar with the speech.

In further suggestions, Swope wrote that the script should be eye-level so that the listeners could see his face instead of the top of his head. "It's a good face (honestly, it is!), but when you bend over it droops (as is the case with all of us), and makes you look older than you are. You're still a young man and I want you to act that role!" (see also Ann Whitman memorandum, Sept. 28, 1953, AWF/AWD).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Emmet John Hughes, 28 September 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 435. 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/435.cfm

<--PREV
Doc #434		  |  Memorial Commission
Home Page		  |  First Term
Table of Contents		  |  Presidential Papers
Home Page 		 | 
Doc#
 |  NEXT-->
Doc #436
 


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