<--PREV Doc #478  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #480 Document #479; December 3, 1957 To Robert Luther Duffus Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series ; Category: Personal 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 7: NATO and the Cold War   Dear Mr. Duffus: I was truly touched by your Saturday's editorial in the New York Times.1 My feeling of personal compliment and gratification at what you had to say was indeed deep--but it is only plain honesty to say that my sense of humility was equally profound. Whatever sense of duty that has, through the years, helped to guide my thinking and actions, has been implanted, I suppose, by my parents, and possibly emphasized by my experiences in West Point and in the Army. I define it as a feeling of obligation to America and to her people. So, whatever my duty seems to me to be, I pray that I may do my best to perform it. A simple thank you is totally inadequate, but it comes from the bottom of my heart.2 With best wishes, Sincerely 1 Duffus (A.M. Stanford 1911) had been a member of the New York Times editorial staff since 1937. He had written several books including The Sante Fe Trail (London, 1930); L. Emmett Holt: A Pioneer of A Children's Century (New York, 1940); and The Innocents at Cedro: A Memoir of Thorstein Veblen and Some Others (New York, 1944). In his November 30 editorial Duffus had commented on Eisenhower's "amazing comeback" from the cerebral occlusion he had suffered on November 25 (on the illness see no. 477). Duffus attributed Eisenhower's speedy recovery to "the fortitude of a man who has all his life been bound by a selfless devotion to duty." He added: "With this devotion has evidently gone an inner serenity and it is this, we are sure, that has been a healing influence." 2 In a letter to New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger the President said that Duffus's editorial had renewed his determination "to get the better of this latest mishap" (Dec. 2, 1957, AWF/N). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Robert Luther Duffus, 3 December 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 479. 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/479.cfm <--PREV Doc #478  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #480

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