<--PREV Doc #571  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #573 Document #572; December 1, 1953 To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; 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"   Dear Cabot: Thank you for your two messages of the twenty-eighth.1 I am returning the handwritten note from Madame Pandit because I thought you might want to keep it in your records.2 I am, of course, delighted that the idea I had became useful so quickly, and highly pleased with the reaction it has created. Moreover, I think that you and Foster handled it in such fashion that we do not appear to be criticizing any of our allies--such as France.3 As ever 1 One of the Ambassador's messages (AWF/A) concerned the resolution of Puerto Rico's status before the United Nations. The establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico on July 25, 1952, a measure providing self-government for the territory, had led the United States to question whether the transmission of information about Puerto Rico to the United Nations under U.N. Charter Article 73(e) was unnecessary and inappropriate (State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. III, United Nations Affairs, pp. 1429-35). Lodge had also written about Security Council Resolution 101 censuring an October 14 Israeli armed attack on the Jordanian village of Qibya (see ibid., vol. IX, The Near and Middle East, pt. 1, pp. 1358-59, 1367, 1399-1400, 1436-37, and Telephone conversation, Lodge to Dulles, Nov. 24, 1953, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversations). 2 Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, chairman of the Indian delegation to the General Assembly, was president of the assembly during the eighth regular session. We do not have a copy of her letter. 3 At a White House breakfast meeting on November 20 Eisenhower had expressed his willingness to support complete independence for Puerto Rico (Lodge to Eisenhower, Nov. 28, 1953, AWF/A, and Telephone conversation, Dulles to Lodge, Nov. 20, 1953, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversations). On November 27 the General Assembly decided the transmission of information issue in favor of the United States after Lodge had made the statement "that if at any time the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico adopts a resolution in favor of more complete or even absolute independence, he [President Eisenhower] will immediately thereafter recommend to Congress that such independence be granted" (State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. III, United Nations Affairs, p. 1476; see also Henry Cabot Lodge, As It Was: An Inside View of Politics and Power in the '50s and '60s [New York, 1976], pp. 64-65). The statement, Lodge wrote, "turned out to be a ten-strike . . . and received an unprecedented burst of applause from the delegates. . . . The effect will be tremendous in Latin America and in all colonial areas." Dulles had originally expressed concern that a statement regarding Puerto Rican independence could embarrass the French and be used by nationalist extremists in North Africa. He had suggested that Lodge temper the wording used to describe Eisenhower's willingness to support independence and indicate that Congress had the final authority in the matter (ibid., pp. 1474-76). For developments see no. 659. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 1 December 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 572. 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/572.cfm <--PREV Doc #571  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #573

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