Presidential Papers, Doc#1639 To Aksel Nielsen, 5 September 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #1639; September 5, 1960
To Aksel Nielsen
Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XXI - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part X: Ending an Era; August 1960 to January 1961
Chapter 23: "To keep the Free World free"

 

Dear Aks: I do not see how I can possibly accept membership on the Board of any commercial company.1 I have had a number of suggestions of this kind, but have come to the conclusion that it would not be in keeping with the course I set for myself a good many years ago.2

Quite naturally I am complimented that the Board members of United would think I could contribute anything to their deliberations, and certainly--if I were going on any industrial or transportation or financial body--I could think of no finer one than United. Won’t you please express my appreciation to those who were responsible for the suggestion?

With warm regard, As ever

1 Nielsen had written that at the September 1 United Airlines board meeting the members had proposed to elect Eisenhower to the board on January 22 (Sept. 2, 1960, AWF/N). Nielsen said that there might be "a dozen reasons why" the President would want to decline the offer, but he thought there were also many reasons to accept. First, he said, they were "a real swell bunch of fellows," and second, United Airlines was preeminent in the industry. It would also serve Eisenhower’s transportation needs, Nielsen said, because directors were entitled to use United’s executive plane whenever they wanted it.

2 On this same day the President had replied in similar fashion to Vernon Bigelow Stouffer, chairman of the Stouffer Corporation and also a member of the United Airlines Board of Directors (AWF/D).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Aksel Nielsen, 5 September 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1639. 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/1639.cfm

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