<--PREV Doc #958  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #960 Document #959; July 6, 1954 To Beatrice Lowndes Earle Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series 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 11: The "men in the Kremlin are not to be trusted"   Dear Mrs. Earle:1 I thank you sincerely for your thoughtful and sincere letter. I share your regret that Ed and I could not have had a long conversation about the subject that troubles you so much.2 After a fairly long experience in matters that require determinations involving human opinions and purposes, I am quite convinced--in fact I know--that pure truth and justice cannot always be sifted out of a mass of conflicting evidence, some of which is often no more than sheer prejudice. In these circumstances I feel that the only proper course is for responsible people to support earnestly and tirelessly the established judicial processes that conform to the best concepts of fair play, justice and individual rights. This process includes also, in final analysis, the idea that honest doubts should be resolved in favor of the individual.3 I assure you that whenever I am called upon to exercise decisive influence in any case, I strive to follow this practice. Again, my thanks for taking the trouble to write me so frankly in the midst of what I know must be difficult days for you.4 With best wishes, Sincerely 1 Beatrice Lowndes Earle was the widow of the late Professor Edward Meade Earle, longtime associate and friend of Eisenhower; see Galambos, Chief of Staff, no. 1312; Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 252 and 791; and n. 4 below. 2 Writing on June 30 Mrs. Earle said that one of the things that had troubled her husband most had been the "whole problem of security regulations and the immediate question of Robert Oppenheimer's relation to them" (WHCF/PPF 21). Mrs. Earle explained that her late husband had told her "over and over again that . . . he was absolutely convinced--that Robert Oppenheimer could be completely trusted," and that he had full confidence in Oppenheimer's loyalty to the country (ibid.). For background on the President's handling of charges against physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer see no. 836. 3 Eisenhower added this sentence in longhand to the original draft of the letter (AWF/Drafts). 4 Earle, a military historian who had served on the faculty of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and had been associated with Columbia University's Institute of War and Peace Studies, had died on June 23, 1954--three weeks after having received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia University (see Eisenhower's letter of condolence to Mrs. Earle, June 26, 1954, WHCF/PPF 21; and New York Times, June 25, 1954). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Beatrice Lowndes Earle, 6 July 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 959. 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/959.cfm <--PREV Doc #958  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #960

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