<--PREV Doc #358  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #360 Document #359; September 27, 1957 To Richard Brevard Russell Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series: Little Rock ; Category: Telegram The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part II: Civil Rights; June 1957 to September 1957 Chapter 5: Little Rock   Few times in my life have I felt as saddened as when the obligations of my office required me to order the use of force within a state to carry out the decisions of a Federal Court.1 My conviction is that had the police powers of the State of Arkansas been utilized not to frustrate the orders of the Court but to support them, the ensuing violence and open disrespect for the law and the Federal Judiciary would never have occurred. The Arkansas National Guard could have handled the situation with ease had it been instructed to do so. As a matter of fact, had the integration of Central High School been permitted to take place without the intervention of the National Guard, there is little doubt that the process would have gone along quite as smoothly and quietly as it has in other Arkansas communities. When a State, by seeking to frustrate the orders of a Federal Court, encourages mobs of extremists to flout the orders of a Federal Court, and when a State refuses to utilize its police powers to protect against mobs persons who are peaceably exercising their right under the Constitution as defined in such Court orders, the oath of office of the President requires that he take action to give that protection. Failure to act in such a case would be tantamount to acquiescence in anarchy and the dissolution of the union. I must say that I completely fail to comprehend your comparison of our troops to Hitler's storm troopers. In one case military power was used to further the ambitions and purposes of a ruthless dictator, in the other to preserve the institutions of free government.2 You allege certain wrong-doings on the part of individual soldiers at Little Rock. The Secretary of the Army will assemble the facts and report them directly to you.3 With warm regard 1 For background see nos. 330 and 357. On September 24, 1957, Eisenhower had ordered United States Army paratroopers to prevent interference with federal court orders directing the admission of nine African-American pupils to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The President had also ordered into federal service all 10,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard in order to prevent state-federal clashes or further obstruction. Speaking to the American people by radio and television that evening, Eisenhower explained his action. "Whenever normal agencies prove inadequate to the task and it becomes necessary for the Executive Branch of the Federal Government to use its powers and authority to uphold Federal Courts, the President's responsibility is inescapable." Eisenhower, who had returned to Washington from his holiday in Newport, Rhode Island, said that he had hoped that local authorities would have handled the disturbance. "But," he added, "when large gatherings of obstructionists made it impossible for the decrees of the Court to be carried out, both the law and the national interest demanded that the President take action." If the President and the Executive Branch of the Government did not insure the carrying out of the decisions of the Federal Courts, the basis of American individual rights and freedoms would be undermined. Mob rule could not be allowed to override the decisions of the courts or anarchy would prevail. Eisenhower emphasized that the troops were in Little Rock "solely for the purpose of preventing interference with the orders of the Court," and not to relieve state and local authorities of their duty to preserve peace in the community (see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, pp. 689 - 94, and New York Times, Sept. 25, 1957). 2 Georgia Senator and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Russell had sent a telegram to the President on September 26 (AWF/A: Little Rock). Russell protested the "highhanded and illegal methods" of the Army, which was "disregarding and overriding the elementary rights of American citizens by applying tactics which must have been copied from the manual issued the officers of Hitler's storm troopers." 3 Russell had cited several instances where soldiers had supposedly struck or pushed unarmed civilians standing on private property. The Senator was also concerned about the alleged arrest of eight persons who reportedly had been held, incommunicado, in jail overnight and without formal charges. "There are a number of other aspects of this case as reported in the press which do not reflect credit upon those in command of this army of troopers," Russell wrote. "Unless corrected this will bring the armed services into disrepute. I earnestly insist that orders be issued prohibiting these acts of violence," the Senator urged. He also demanded that the government "investigate these attacks and properly punish all of those who may have been guilty of unnecessary violence against inoffensive and peacable [sic] American citizens." For developments see no. 362. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Telegram To Richard Brevard Russell, 27 September 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 359. 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/359.cfm <--PREV Doc #358  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #360

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission 1629 K Street, NW Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464