Presidential Papers, Doc#571 Personal and confidential To John Foster Dulles, 1 December 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Doc #572

Document #571; December 1, 1953
To John Foster Dulles
Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Philippine Islands ; Category: Personal and confidential
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part IV: "Pushing ahead along the broad center"; December 1953 to March 1954
Chapter 8: A world "racing toward catastrophe"

 

Memorandum for the Secretary of State: When Admiral Spruance visited me recently, he informed me that he hoped to leave his post by February or March of next year.1 At the same time, I informed him that I had received only good reports of his service as Ambassador and that, so far as I was concerned, the post was his as long as he wanted it.

On the assumption, however, that he intends to carry through his intent to resign, I hope that you will give consideration as his successor to Lieutenant General Joseph M. Swing, who will retire from the Army about February 1st. I understand that Swing is a very intimate and long-time friend of President-elect Magsaysay.2

While I have not talked to you particularly about this subject, I understand you may well have different ideas concerning it; but I should like you to give consideration to Swing's name and to talk to me before any other individual is approached as possible successor to Spruance.3

1 For background on Spruance, a former Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and since 1952 Ambassador to the Philippines, see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 516. He had visited the President on October 14 to discuss the Philippine presidential campaign.

2 Swing, a West Point classmate of Eisenhower, had been commandant of the Army War College in 1951 and 1952, and then commander of the Sixth Army (see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 983 and no. 824 in this volume). At a meeting with the President earlier this same day, Swing had asked to be considered for the ambassadorial post (Carroll memorandum, Dec. 2, 1953, AWF/AWD). Ramon Magsaysay had been elected president of the Philippines on November 10 (see no. 524).

3 Eisenhower would later formally request that Spruance remain at his post, and the ambassador would not submit his resignation until January 1955 (New York Times, Jan. 20, 1954; Mar. 12, 1955). Swing would become Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1954, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1962.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To John Foster Dulles, 1 December 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 571. 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/571.cfm

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