<--PREV Doc #567  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #569 Document #568; February 5, 1958 To Winston Spencer Churchill Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Churchill The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958 Chapter 8: "To engender confidence"   [Dear Winston:] Many thanks for your note.1 Mamie and I are reserving Tuesday, the twenty-second of April, through Friday, the twenty-fifth, for your visit to the White House. We hope that Clemmie will be feeling well enough to accompany you.2 I believe the exhibition of your paintings opens at the Smithsonian on the evening of the twenty-fifth, and I am asking Joyce Hall if it might not be possible for you and me, together, to visit the showing privately the same day.3 You may, of course, want to attend the formal opening, but I usually like to avoid crowds, if possible. I am, of course, holding you to your promise to give me one of the paintings; I assure you it will have the place of honor in the Eisenhower home.4 I hear that the exhibition is drawing unprecedented numbers in Kansas City; the New York and Washington papers gave considerable space to it, which is an unusual thing for them to do for any midwestern event.5 Please let me know what, if any, social affairs you would like Mamie and me to hold in your honor. We want to do whatever you would like. If you prefer, we can keep your visit entirely a "family" affair.6 With warm regard, As ever 1 On January 23 the President had invited former British Prime Minister Churchill to stay at the White House in April (see n. 3 below). Churchill had accepted on January 29 (both in AWF/I: Churchill; see also New York Times, Feb. 4, 8, 1958; for background see n. 3 below). 2 Churchill, who was vacationing in Roquebrune, France, said he had forwarded Eisenhower's invitation to Lady Churchill, who was in London recuperating from "repeated doses of influenza." 3 In March Churchill had agreed to exhibit thirty of his paintings in ten U.S. cities. Hall, president of Hallmark, Inc., had arranged the exhibition (see nos. 86 and 415). 4 Churchill had renewed his offer to present to Eisenhower a painting of his choice (for background see no. 222). 5 Churchill said he would never have risked "vaunting" his pictures before "a mighty nation" but for Eisenhower's encouragement. The January 22 opening of the exhibition had broken attendance records at the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City (see Eisenhower to Franklin D. Murphy, Jan. 22; Franklin D. Murphy to Churchill, Jan. 23, Hall to Whitman, Jan. 24, Hall to Eisenhower, Jan. 24, Whitman to Hall, Jan. 28, Franklin D. Murphy to Eisenhower, Jan. 28, and Eisenhower to Franklin D. Murphy, Feb. 3, 1958, all in WHCF/PPF 833; New York Times, Jan. 19, 1958). 6 As it turned out, poor health would force postponement of Churchill's visit (see undated memorandum and Churchill to Eisenhower, Apr. 8, 1958, both in AWF/I: Churchill). For developments see no. 668. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Winston Spencer Churchill, 5 February 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 568. 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/568.cfm <--PREV Doc #567  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #569

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