<--PREV Doc #1048  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1050 Document #1049; February 9, 1959 To George Edward Allen Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part VI: Setbacks; November 1958 to February 1959 Chapter 15: "Debate is the breath of life"   Dear George: So far I have received no reports on your reduction program. I assume that by this time you are down to something about two hundred and twenty. This reflects, of course, my confidence in your sturdiness of purpose and intensity of effort.1 All the above is my prelude to a dismaying fact that I discovered this morning when I mounted my scales--the first time since leaving here last Wednesday morning.2 They balanced at one hundred and seventy-nine, a clear gain of five pounds in four days. Sausage, hot cakes, ham, lobster, caviar and broiled-in-butter quail were even more delectable than in the past. This I now regret. Mrs. Whitman learned this afternoon through Reynolds that you liked the ham.3 I am delighted. So far we have not used one of the hams, but we have had a piece of a shoulder, and both the children and ourselves found this very good indeed. I think the bacon is not quite up to the ham, but it is still very good. It was most fortunate that Mamie did not go with me to Milestone. We had a rough trip going down and had to use an alternate field where the field equipment was better suited for landing. The rain and wind were so heavy that we had to circle the field for some forty minutes before finally reaching the runway, and even then we went in under a ceiling that was about as low as anything I have ever encountered, at least in a big plane.4 Following that we had three days of fairly good shooting, but only on one of these could I have been called a "hot shot." Incidentally, all my talk about having to come back Sunday night was based on a misconception that I picked up somewhere that I had two speeches on Tuesday of this week. This morning I found that I had my dates mixed and the talks are, instead, on Wednesday.5 Even so it is probably just as well that I came home since the weather in Thomasville turned bad yesterday and I suspect has been similar to what we have had here today--in other words, dark, rainy, damp and coldish. Give my love to Mary and, of course, all the best to yourself. As ever 1 Allen had been among the group of old friends who joined the President for a stag weekend at Camp David January 23 - 25 (New York Times, Jan. 24, 25, 26, 1959). For background on Eisenhower's efforts to have Allen lose weight see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 953 and 1846. For developments see no. 1053. 2 On the President's vacation at Milestone Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia (Feb. 4 - 9), see the following document. 3 Reynolds probably worked for the Allens. On January 31 Eisenhower had made arrangements to send the ham (see Ann Whitman memorandum, Jan. 31, 1959, AWF/AWD; see also no. 1057). 4 According to Presidential Secretary Ann Whitman's notations the flight to Thomasville had been "awful, and quite bumpy." The pilot, who had been forced to land at an Air Force base sixty-five miles away from Thomasville, missed the runway with one wheel. They returned, she wrote, in another "blinding rainstorm" (Ann Whitman memorandum, Feb. 4, 9, 1959, AWF/AWD). 5 On the afternoon of February 11 Eisenhower would address the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In the evening he would speak briefly at the National Lincoln Day Sesquicentennial Dinner. For his remarks to both groups see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1959, pp. 178 - 83; see also Ann Whitman memorandum, February 9, 11, 1959, AWF/AWD. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To George Edward Allen, 9 February 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1049. 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/second-term/documents/1049.cfm <--PREV Doc #1048  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1050

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