<--PREV Doc #48  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #50 Document #49; February 20, 1953 Corr. To Richard Milhous Nixon Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series, State Department, Enslavement Resolution The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork   Dear Mr. President:1 In my message to Congress of February 2, 1953,2 I stated that I would ask the Congress at a later date to join in an appropriate resolution, making clear that we would never acquiesce in the enslavement of any people in order to purchase fancied gain for ourselves, and that we would not feel that any past agreements committed us to any such enslavement.3 In pursuance of that portion of the message to Congress, I now have the honor to inform you that I am concurrently informing the Speaker of the House that I invite the concurrence of the two branches of the Congress in a declaration, in which I would join as President which would: (1) Refer to World War II international agreements or understandings concerning other peoples; (2) Point out that the leaders of the Soviet Communist Party who now control Russia, in violation of the clear intent of these agreements or understandings,4 subjected whole nations concerned to the domination of a totalitarian imperialism; (3) Point out that such forceful absorption of free peoples into an aggressive despotism increases the threat against the security of all remaining free peoples, including our own; (4) State that the people of the United States, true to their tradition and heritage of freedom, have never acquiesced in such enslavement of any peoples; (5) Point out that it is appropriate that the Congress should join with the President to give expression to the desires and hopes of the American peoples; (6) Conclude with a declaration that the Senate and the House join with the President in declaring that the United States rejects any interpretations or applications of any international agreements or understandings, made during the course of World War II, which have been perverted to bring about the subjugation of free peoples, and further join in proclaiming the hope that the peoples, who have been subjected to the captivity of Soviet despotism, shall again enjoy the right of self-determination within a framework which will sustain the peace; that they shall again have the right to choose the form of government under which they will live, and that sovereign rights of self-government shall be restored to them all in accordance with the pledge of the Atlantic Charter. I am enclosing a form of draft resolution, which, in my opinion, carries out the purposes outlined above, and in which I am prepared to concur.5 Sincerely 1 Vice-President Richard Milhous Nixon presided over the Senate and was thus addressed as "Mr. President." On Eisenhower's relationship with him see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 899, 937, 940, 1049n. Eisenhower sent an identical message to Speaker of the House of Representatives Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (see no. 23). 2 See no. 14. 3 The 1952 Republican party platform charged Democrats with abandoning Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia to the Communists and described the wartime Allied conferences at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam as the scenes of "tragic blunders"; there, Democrats were said to have "traded our overwhelming victory for a new enemy and for new oppressions and new wars which were quick to come." The platform included a plank pledging to "repudiate all commitments contained in secret understandings such as those of Yalta which aid Communist enslavements." During the campaign Eisenhower had made the plight of "captive" peoples behind the Iron Curtain an important theme. Reports of Administration plans to submit this resolution to Congress had surfaced at the February 17 White House meeting of Administration officials and Republican congressional leaders (Kirk H. Porter and Donald Bruce Johnson, comps., National Party Platforms, 1840-1968 [Urbana, 1970], pp. 497, 499; Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 805, 856, 857, 928, 946; New York Times, Feb. 17, 1953. For further background on this draft resolution see Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. II, The President, pp. 65-67; Charles C. Alexander, Holding the Line: The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1961 [Bloomington, 1975], pp. 44-45; and Reichard, Reaffirmation of Republicanism, pp. 52-54). 4 This phrase especially disappointed Old Guard Republicans because it failed to blame Soviet oppression in Eastern Europe on Democratic malfeasance (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 979, and New York Times, Feb. 19, 22, 25, 1953). 5 Democrats opposed any substantive amendments to Eisenhower's measure, which died in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. House sponsors secured unanimous committee approval of the resolution on February 27 but put off a floor vote. Stalin's death in early March persuaded Administration and congressional leaders to postpone further consideration (New York Times, Feb. 24, 25, 27, 28, 1953; Reichard, Reaffirmation of Republicanism, pp. 54-55). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Corr. To Richard Milhous Nixon, 20 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 49. 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/49.cfm <--PREV Doc #48  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #50

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