<--PREV Doc #748  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #750 Document #749; June 16, 1958 To Edward Ian Claud Jacob Series: EM, WHCF, Confidential File:State Department ; Category: Personal and confidential The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part V: Forcing the President's Hand; June 1958 to October 1958 Chapter 11: "Take time by the forelock"   Dear Ian: Your note of May 30th of course strikes a very responsive chord, especially because of my friendship with you and with Field Marshal Montgomery. My first reaction was to comply at once with your request.1 But before agreeing to do so, I want to present some questions that bother me. Among the older and very senior men of the British uniformed services who have stood high in my respect, admiration and affection are such people as Peter Portal, Andrew Cunningham, Arthur Tedder, Pug Ismay, Harold Alexander and, of course, Montgomery.2 There are others. So far as I know, the BBC has never staged any special ceremony to mark the retirement of any of these people; if it has, I have not been invited to participate. So the specific questions I have are: (a). If I should now participate in any public ceremony noting the retirement from active service of Montgomery, would the others consider me as having been indifferent when their own retirements took place? (b). Does it not place before me a very delicate problem in differentiating among my British military friends so far as any public expression of my admiration of their abilities? (c). Would participation on my part create for me a precedent both with respect of my American friends and associates as well as those British figures for whom at some future date some special ceremony will be planned? It is questions such as these that bother me. I should like your own opinion about them.3 Because of the confidential and delicate nature of any problem involving personalities, I hope that this matter may be kept on an "EYES ONLY" basis between you and me.4 With warm regard, 1 Brigadier Jacob, who had served as Military Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet throughout World War II, was Director-General of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). For background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. I - V. Jacob had asked the President to record a short message for the special program marking the retirement of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery of Alamein, then serving as NATO's Deputy Allied Supreme Commander, Europe. Referring to Eisenhower's "close association" and "personal friendship" with Montgomery, Jacob said the program would be "incomplete" without the President's "personal 'appreciation.'" 2 Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, Viscount of Hungerford, had been Chief of Air Staff during World War II. British Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Andrew Browne Cunningham of Hyndhope had served as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, 1943 - 1946. Following the war he had been Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Sir Arthur William Tedder, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, had been Deputy Supreme Commander under Eisenhower during World War II and the United Kingdom representative on the NATO Standing Group until 1951. He was currently chairman of Triumph-International Ltd. General Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay had served as Deputy Secretary to the War Cabinet during World War II and as Secretary-General of NATO from 1952 until 1957. Field Marshal Sir Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander of Tunis had served as Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean Theatre, 1944 - 1945. He had been Governor General of Canada, 1946 - 1952, and Minister of Defense, 1952 - 1954. For background on all these men see Eisenhower Papers, vols. I - XVII. 3 Press Secretary Hagerty would offer "no objection" to the idea on June 9. The State Department would report on June 13 that Eisenhower's participation in the program would be an "appropriate gesture" to Montgomery and would be received "most warmly" in the United Kingdom (Hagerty to Whitman, and Howe to Whitman). We have been unable to locate any reply from Jacob. 4 On September 17 more than 300 Allied officers would attend the dinner in Paris marking the end of Montgomery's fifty years of service in the British Army. In his tribute, the President would acknowledge Montgomery's "distinguished wartime record" and his "great contribution" to the establishment of NATO (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1958, p. 704, and New York Times, Sept. 18, 1958). For developments on Eisenhower's view of Montgomery see no. 948. All correspondence is in the same file as the document. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Edward Ian Claud Jacob, 16 June 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 749. 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/749.cfm <--PREV Doc #748  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #750

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