<--PREV Doc #659  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #661 Document #660; April 23, 1958 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958 Chapter 9: "The problems inherent in this job"   Dear Foster: Herewith a note from Cabot that points up again one of the great crosses we have to bear in the international world because of loose talking.1 I should like to have the letter back for my files. In the meantime I am trying to think of something to say to the Defense establishment that may be really effective.2 As ever 1 U.N. Ambassador Lodge had written Eisenhower after an April 21 speech by Soviet U.N. Representative Arkady A. Sobolev, criticizing the United States for sending planes with atomic and hydrogen bombs through the Arctic zone toward the Soviet Union. He had cited statements by American generals that the flights had been recalled when radar signals were discovered to have been caused by electronic interference or falling meteorites. Although the flights had returned to their bases, Sobolev said, such actions indicated that very little provocation was needed "to place mankind on the edge of the abyss" (New York Times, Apr. 22, 1958). Lodge had written: "I realize that our Pentagon friends probably have good internal reasons for what they say, but I wish that they could have been here yesterday to see the harm which it does us in the world forum" (Lodge to Eisenhower, Apr. 22, 1958, AWF/D-H). 2 On this same day Dulles would tell Eisenhower that leaks and uncleared statements were "a matter of great concern," and although the problem could never be completely corrected, "keeping the pressure on at least prevented the situation from getting worse." Eisenhower indicated that he would speak to Defense Secretary McElroy about this (Memorandum of Conversation, Apr. 23, 1958, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series; for more on Defense Department leaks see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 508). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 23 April 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 660. 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/660.cfm <--PREV Doc #659  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #661

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