<--PREV Doc #1539  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1541 Document #1540; May 18, 1960 To Lauris Norstad Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IX: Shattered Dreams; March 1960 to July 1960 Chapter 22: Disaster in Paris   Dear Larry:1 Yesterday the Prime Minister and I had an opportunity to visit Marnes-la-Coquette.2 By advice of our staffs, who felt that a visit to SHAPE would have too strong a military implication, we refrained from going over to the Headquarters.3 We stopped briefly at the Villa St. Pierre and all your staff were more than cooperative and hospitable in showing us the grounds.4 Please tell Isabelle that the steward was kind enough also to take us around the lower rooms of the house. Tell her I apologize for the intrusion, but wanted to indulge my nostalgic memories of the place. After a visit there we called on Mayor Minaud to pay our respects. He was one big bundle of enthusiasm.5 All in all it was by far the most pleasant hour I have had in Paris. John McCone came to see me this morning, and his glowing report of your condition is most heartening and encouraging.6 I am afraid I can’t accept your invitation for fishing!7 However, all of us join in sending you our warmest good wishes for a speedy recovery and, of course, give my affectionate greetings to Isabelle. As ever 1 General Norstad, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, had apologized (May 15, 1960, AWF/A) for not meeting the President when he arrived in Paris. While vacationing in West Germany he had suffered a mild heart attack, and he had remained there to recuperate. He planned to "get back to full and unrestricted duty" in about six weeks, he wrote. 2 The President and British Prime Minister Macmillan had been in Paris to attend the summit meetings (see nos. 1538 and 1539). Marnes-la-Coquette, a picturesque village ten miles west of Paris, had been the Eisenhowers’ home while the General served as Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty forces in Europe (for background see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 314). 3 Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe, SHAPE, was located in Marly Forest, fifteen miles west of Paris and near Versailles (for background see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 45). 4 In August 1951 the Eisenhowers moved into Villa St. Pierre, a country house with classic regency lines, in Marnes-la-Coquette (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 18, 298, and 314; and Alden Hatch, Red Carpet for Mamie [New York, 1954], pp. 230 - 34). Now it was the Norstads’ residence. 5 Jean Minaud was mayor of Marnes-la-Coquette. The President first had met Minaud in 1951 when he presented honorary citizenships to the Eisenhowers (see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1258 and New York Times, Sept. 10, 1951). 6 In April Atomic Energy Commission Chairman McCone had remained in Paris after participating in U.S.-French discussions on peaceful uses of atomic energy (New York Times, Apr. 10, 15, 1960). 7 Norstad had mentioned in his letter that he had enjoyed "some really wonderful trout fishing" before his illness. "By helicopter," he wrote, "the stream can’t be 15 minutes away from Munich." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Lauris Norstad, 18 May 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1540. 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/1540.cfm <--PREV Doc #1539  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1541

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