<--PREV Doc #1289  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1291 Document #1290; August 14, 1959 To Malcolm Charles Moos Series: EM, AWF, Name Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part VII: Berlin and the Chance for a Summit; March 1959 to August 1959 Chapter 18: "These extremist approaches"   Dear Malcolm: I have done a bit of editing on the draft for the Brown speech. Ann will send you a clean copy with this note.1 What I think this piece lacks is a distinct theme that sets forth the dimensions of a basic purpose and the vital importance of that purpose to the world. Throughout it there are found references to the importance of raising living standards for the masses of the world, of whom so many are hungry. I believe that we ought in unequivocal language state that there is an inescapable requirement for the so-called civilized nations to make this a mandatory purpose, taking priority over all others.2 A part of the theme would be that such nations must mobilize together if they are going to do the job well and efficiently. Against the background of this statement of purpose and the need to cooperate among governments to achieve that purpose, there should be shown that compared to this problem that of East-West relationships, arms races, and even the most important of domestic issues pale into insignificance. I believe that if some such thought as this could be stated succinctly and unequivocally in the talk, the whole piece would hang together better because each of the things that we would talk about in the political, economic and intellectual worlds would fall into place. As I say, I have worked over the thing editorially only. But I have not attempted to introduce the thought which is so inadequately expressed in this memorandum. However, if we could do this, then I feel that it would be worth the time and trouble I might take to go to Brown to deliver this speech. Otherwise I think I should cancel. I believe also that we have to make sure of our satisfaction with the Harvard talk because I cannot possibly cancel one without cancelling the other.3 As soon as you come back, I think we ought to get busy on both of these.4 1 For background on the President’s invitation to receive an honorary degree and deliver the opening address at a three-day convocation on "Man in a Contracting World in an Expanding Universe" at Brown University see no. 1198. The copy of the second suggested draft (Aug. 12, 1959), containing Eisenhower’s extensive handwritten emendations, is in AWF/N. On May 22 Eisenhower had met with Moos and other advisers to discuss major presidential speeches and speech commitments over the next eighteen months. Following the meeting Moos had suggested that the speech at Brown should be about education and "the need for understanding" (Moos to Dwight Eisenhower and Milton Eisenhower, May 24, 1959, AWF/N, Milton Eisenhower Corr.; see also no. 1172). 2 Moos had begun the eleven-page draft by stressing the relationship between the university and government in a world simultaneously contracting and expanding due to increased power, people, knowledge, and communication. The world population was growing by 45 million each year, Moos wrote, and most of them went hungry. More people would demand more food, goods, and individual rights. Broadly stated, Moos said, economic and political progress had failed to keep up with technology and no amount of technical improvising could fix the new social and moral landscape. Solving the world’s problems involved "patiently and painstakingly" allowing people to provide adequately for themselves through their own efforts. 3 Eisenhower had been invited to speak at the dedication ceremonies of the International Law School Building at Harvard University (Moos to Dwight Eisenhower and Milton Eisenhower, May 24, 1959, AWF/N, Milton Eisenhower Corr.). 4 The President and Moos would meet on September 8. On that same day the President would cancel the speeches at Brown and Harvard in order, he said, to keep his schedule free for diplomacy. He would send a message to Brown University expressing confidence that the conference would bring about efforts to restore "'the kind of world God meant all mankind to enjoy'" (New York Times, Sept. 9, Oct. 22, 1959). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Malcolm Charles Moos, 14 August 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1290. 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/1290.cfm <--PREV Doc #1289  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1291

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