<--PREV Doc #1698  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1700 Document #1699; November 9, 1960 To Richard Milhous Nixon Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series ; Category: and Patricia Ryan Nixon The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XXI - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part X: Ending an Era; August 1960 to January 1961 Chapter 24: "We missed by such a narrow margin"   Dear Dick and Pat: This afternoon I am starting off to Augusta. While it seems ridiculous for me to be speaking of fatigue when I know what you and Pat have been through these many weeks, I am nevertheless feeling a great need to get some sunshine, recreation and rest.1 Before going, I want to express to you both the fervent hope that the two of you will not be too greatly disappointed by yesterday’s election returns.2 I know that whatever disappointment you do feel will not be for yourselves but for our country and for the jeopardy in which our great hopes and aims for the future have been placed. On the personal side, you will unquestionably have a happier life during these next four years, especially because of your closer contact with your two beautiful daughters. Of course I have no indication of what your future plans may be--possibly you do not know yourselves. But wherever you go or whatever activities in which you may be engaged, you will have my best wishes.3 I assure you that my official confidence in you, Dick, has not been shaken for a moment, and of course all four of you may be certain that the affection that Mamie and I feel for you will never grow less.4 With warm regard, As ever 1 Eisenhower would travel to Augusta, Georgia, for a two-week vacation beginning on November 9. 2 On November 8 Senator John F. Kennedy had defeated Vice - President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency; see New York Times, November 9, 1960. See also Eisenhower, Waging Peace, pp. 597 - 602; and Nixon, Six Crises, pp. 374 - 426. In a telephone call on this same day, Nixon had told the President: "You were magnificent, as far as I am concerned." Eisenhower had urged the Vice-President to take a "good rest" and had added, "We can be proud of these last eight years" (Ann Whitman memorandum, Nov. 9, 1960, AWF/D). In a separate telephone conversation with Milton Eisenhower, however, the President would say that at first he had felt as though the "work of eight years was down the drain" (Ann Whitman memorandum, Nov. 10, 1960, AWF/D). 3 See Ambrose, Nixon, pp. 626 - 49. 4 On that same day Eisenhower had also telegraphed Henry Cabot Lodge, congratulating him on "a magnificent campaign in the finest tradition of a great American family" (WHCF/OF 138-A). Eisenhower had also sent congratulatory wires to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (ibid.). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. and Patricia Ryan Nixon To Richard Milhous Nixon, 9 November 1960. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1699. 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/1699.cfm <--PREV Doc #1698  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1700

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