<--PREV Doc #364  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #366 Document #365; October 2, 1957 To Richard Milhous Nixon Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958 Chapter 6: Sputnik and "the fears of our own people"   Dear Dick: I had been hoping to play golf this afternoon, but will probably not know before 12 or 1 o'clock whether it will be possible for me to be absent from the office. In the event I do go, I wonder whether you would play with me. We could get Tom Belshe and anyone else you might suggest.1 If you already have a game, please don't think of changing your plans because mine are necessarily so uncertain because of the stupidity and duplicity of one called Faubus.2 As ever 1 Retired Air Force Colonel Belshe was greens chairman at Burning Tree Country Club, where he frequently golfed with Eisenhower. 2 On the preceding day Eisenhower had met with the governors of Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennessee, representing the Southern Governors Conference, in a continuing effort to resolve the problems in Little Rock (see no. 362). During the meeting the President stated that he would withdraw the federal troops from Little Rock and return control of the National Guard to Arkansas as soon as Governor Faubus gave satisfactory assurances that there would be no obstruction in carrying out the orders of the federal court and that he would maintain order. Contacted by telephone, Faubus agreed to pledge publicly that he would uphold the orders of the federal court. In his statement to the press, however, Faubus would only promise that "the orders of the Federal Court will not be obstructed by me." Later in the evening Eisenhower announced his refusal to remove federal troops. Because Faubus had added the words "by me," his statement, the President said, did not constitute "the assurance that he intends to use his full powers as Governor to prevent the obstruction of the orders of the United States District Court" (see Memorandum of Conversation, Oct. 1, 1957, and other papers in AWF/A: Little Rock; Ann Whitman memorandum, Oct. 1, 2, 1957, AWF/AWD). See also Eisenhower, Waging Peace, pp. 173 - 74; Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, pp. 701 - 2; Adams, Firsthand Report, pp. 356 - 59; and New York Times, Oct. 1, 2, 1957. For developments see no. 374. As it turned out, the President would play a round of golf with Nixon and Belshe on this afternoon (see Ann Whitman Memorandum, Oct. 2, 1957, AWF/AWD and Telephone conversation, Eisenhower and Nixon, Oct. 2, 1957, AWF/D). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Richard Milhous Nixon, 2 October 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 365. 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/365.cfm <--PREV Doc #364  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #366

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