<--PREV Doc #546  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #548 Document #547; January 23, 1958 To John Michael Budinger Series: EM, AWF, Name 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 7: NATO and the Cold War   Dear Jack: I find myself the fortunate recipient of three letters from you. But most importantly, I want to congratulate you, and the directors and members of the Blind Brook Club, on your election as President.1 That fact alone renews my desire some day to have another game there. Still on Blind Brook matters, I appreciate the kindness of the Board of Directors in electing me to Honorary Membership for the calendar year 1958. And much as I should like to attend the dinner party in honor of Ike Harvey, I know you will realize it will be impossible.2 I hope, however, that you will extend my greetings and best wishes to all who join with you on that occasion, and that you will give Ike a special salute for his fine work and long term of service. Now as to your suggestion of an "economic high command." In a sense we have a group that operates as such a body. I hold fairly regular meetings with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Dr. Hauge (who, as you know, is my Special Assistant on Economic Affairs.) We discuss informally all the problems that confront us. But your suggestion goes even further than our discussions and offhand I would think it has much merit. I shall get some of my "experts" to give me their opinions.3 With warm regard, and again congratulations on your new job! As ever 1 Bankers Trust Senior Vice-President Budinger wrote frequently with suggestions on the President's management of economic affairs (see no. 484). In one letter written on January 20, and two on January 21 (AWF/N), he discussed affairs at the Blind Brook Country Club in Port Chester, New York (for background see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1541). 2 Budinger's January 20 letter had invited Eisenhower to attend a dinner party to honor outgoing club president I. J. Harvey, Jr., president of the Flintkote Company, manufacturers of asphalt shingles and roofing materials. The January 21 letter had advised Eisenhower on his honorary membership in the Blind Brook Club. 3 In his second letter of January 21, Budinger had complimented Eisenhower on the State of the Union Address (see no. 526). "I was pleased to see you put so much stress on the economic aspects of our position," he wrote, "but I am wondering if on the economic front we are properly organized, both defensively and offensively." Budinger suggested that the United States needed an "economic high command" to ensure that the various economic and financial agencies of the government not go in "different and often opposite directions." "I was very much impressed with the measures taken by the European Economic Communities to effectuate their long term aims and purposes, with which I think we eventually may come in conflict unless we coordinate our economic activities with our western allies," Budinger wrote. On Eisenhower's interaction with his economic advisers see, for example, no. 572. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Michael Budinger, 23 January 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 547. 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/547.cfm <--PREV Doc #546  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #548

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