<--PREV Doc #833  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #835 Document #834; April 16, 1954 To Sinclair Weeks Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part V: Maintaining "a united defense"; April 1954 to August 1954 Chapter 10: Losing the war "they could not win"   In my message to Congress on the subject of foreign economic policy, I subscribed to the principle that support of a merchant marine adequate to our defense requirement should be provided by direct means to the greatest extent possible.1 I also stated that the Executive Branch would review the study made by your Department on this subject and that specific recommendations would be submitted to the next session of the Congress. I request that you include in your study full consideration of the extent to which direct means can be utilized to maintain an adequate merchant marine.2 1 On the President's March 30 message to Congress see the preceding document. Regarding support for the merchant marine on national security grounds see Mar. 14, 1954, AWF/A; see also Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1954, p. 360). 2 In its report of May 3, 1954, to the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, the U.S. Maritime Administration (in cooperation with the departments of Commerce and Defense) would recommend continuing studies of the "basis, scope, and coverage of direct and indirect subsidies" in "full consideration of the extent to which direct means can be utilized to maintain an adequate merchant marine." In general, the report would favor subsidies (U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, A Review of Maritime Subsidy Policy in the Light of Present National Requirements for a Merchant Marine and a Shipbuilding Industry, 83d Cong., 2d sess., 1954, pp. 96, 99, 101). In days to come Secretary Weeks would pledge the Eisenhower Administration's full support of the merchant marine (see New York Times, May 22, Aug. 27, 29, 1954; see also Samuel A. Lawrence, United States Shipping Policies and Politics [Washington, D.C., 1966], pp. 166-204, 240-43; Clark G. Reynolds, "American Maritime Power since World War II," in America's Maritime Legacy: A History of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Shipbuilding Industry Since Colonial Times, edited by Robert A. Kilmarx [Boulder, Colo., 1979], pp. 215-29; and Gerald R. Jantscher, Bread Upon the Waters: Federal Aids to the Maritime Industries [Washington, D.C., 1975]). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Sinclair Weeks, 16 April 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 834. 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/834.cfm <--PREV Doc #833  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #835

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