<--PREV Doc #446  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #448 Document #447; October 2, 1953 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, International Series 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"   Dear Foster: I have in front of me a message from Chancellor Adenauer in response to my letter to him of September twenty-first about helping the people of East Berlin and the Soviet occupied zone with warm clothing.1 I should like to know what exactly is being done in the United States on the matter and by whom. Would you please ask the proper person to send me a memorandum on the subject?2 As ever 1 For the President's letter to Adenauer see no. 421. The German Chancellor had written Eisenhower on September 30 thanking him for his understanding. "I am convinced," he wrote, "that this call for aid to mitigate the distress prevailing in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany, will find a response with the American people who so often have shown in such a generous manner a readiness to help people in distress" (AWF/I: Germany). 2 In an undated memorandum (AWF/D-H) Dulles would inform the President that a conference of representatives of the State Department, the FOA, and the American Council on Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service had taken place in New York City. The council had agreed to respond "quickly and generously" through its constituent agencies to a clothing drive to include East Germany. In addition, the Secretary reported that twenty agencies of the Council of Registered Relief Agencies Licensed for Operations in Germany (CRALOG) would "increase their shipments in response to your request." Other agencies promising support were the Church World Service, Lutheran World Relief, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the American Red Cross, CARE, and the International Rescue Committee. Efforts in the United States would be coordinated with agencies in West Germany under a new relief program that would include both food and clothing. The original food program (see no. 421), would terminate on October 3 at the request of authorities of both the Federal Republic and West Berlin because residents of the Soviet zone receiving food packages had been subject to public harassments, and restrictions had been placed on their travel in Berlin. Fearing additional reprisals, Dulles emphasized that "nothing be done to incite new harassment or further obstacles to aid to Germans in the East Zone." There should also be "no publicity involving the names of the channels to be used or the method of distribution." For background and developments see State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. VII, Germany and Austria, pt. 2, pp. 1646-73. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 2 October 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 447. 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/447.cfm <--PREV Doc #446  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #448

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