<--PREV Doc #61  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #63 Document #62; March 8, 1957 To Wright Francis Morrow Series: EM, AWF, Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Dear Mr. Morrow: Following your visit to me the other day I had a long talk with Secretary Dulles about the Ambassadorial post in Mexico.1 As of this moment, there are no specific plans for supplanting Mr. White in that post.2 On the other hand, it is a fact that as a general proposition we prefer to avoid keeping any individual in any Ambassadorial post for longer than four years. With respect to a possible successor, the State Department is no longer concerned as to the State in which an appointee might have his residence.3 They are, however, convinced that the next man selected for the Mexican post, whenever such a change may be made, should have had extensive State Department experience. Supporting this decision are sound reasons with which I agree and which I am sure would be persuasive to you. I know that this will be personally disappointing to you, but I assure you that neither in the Secretary's judgment nor in mine does it reflect in any way upon your own personal qualities and abilities, all of which we much admire and respect. I regret that I cannot send you a more encouraging letter. Incidentally, while I was dictating this, your letter of March fourth reached my desk. Certainly I agree with you that merely because an individual claims Texas as his native State, it presents no disqualification for this particular post.4 With warm personal regard, Sincerely 1 See no. 52. 2 For background on White, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico since March 1953, see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 149. 3 Morrow had criticized the State Department's consideration of an ambassador's home state as a criterion for making appointments. "It is hard for me to understand," he said, "why we have Good Neighbor Commissions and reciprocal trade obligations and still want to 'bar the gate' to the people most familiar with Mexico" (WHCF/OF 204). 4 Disappointed that he did not receive the appointment, Morrow would write Eisenhower on March 27. "I do have the consolation, however, of offering my services to the President of my country in a capacity for which I believed I was best qualified" (WHCF/OF 204; see also Dulles to Eisenhower, Mar. 29, 1957, ibid.). Robert Charles Hill, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, would become Ambassador to Mexico in June (see Morrow to Adams, Apr. 26, 1957; and Adams to Morrow, May 1, 1957, both in ibid.). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Wright Francis Morrow, 8 March 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 62. 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/62.cfm <--PREV Doc #61  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #63

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