<--PREV Doc #886  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #888 Document #887; October 9, 1958 To John Foster Dulles Series: Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series 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 13: Quemoy and Matsu   Foster:1 If invited (and we deem wise to comply) to send a representative to Pope’s funeral my present thought is as follows:2 Provided, only a one day stay in Rome is expected or required, you could be the most effective representative. If only 2 or 3 days required--Mitchell might be best. If longer, McCone.3 1 Eisenhower had handwritten this memorandum and given it to Secretary Dulles at the Cabinet meeting on this same day (see Note, Oct. 10, 1958, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series; see also Telephone conversation, Dulles and Persons, Oct. 8, 1958, ibid.). 2 Pope Pius XII had died of a stroke on the preceding evening at the Papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. He had suffered a similar stroke two days earlier. 3 In a subsequent meeting with Eisenhower, Dulles would agree to attend the principal ceremony and would ask Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell and former U.S. Ambassador to Italy Clare Booth Luce to accompany him. Mitchell would decline because of prior engagements, but Atomic Energy Commission Chairman John A. McCone would accept the assignment (Ann Whitman memorandum, Oct. 9, 1958, AWF/AWD; see also Telephone conversations, Dulles and Eisenhower, Murphy, Mitchell, and Luce, Oct. 9, 1958, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversations). Eisenhower's three representatives would leave on October 17 and attend the solemn requiem mass in St. Peter's Basilica three days later. Dulles would then go on to Taipei for consultations with President Chiang (see no. 907). McCone would return to the United States immediately, and Luce would remain in Rome for several days. On October 28 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli would become Pope John XXIII (New York Times, Oct. 9, 14, 16, 29; see also Dulles, Memorandum of Conversation, Oct. 24, 1958, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 9 October 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 887. 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/887.cfm <--PREV Doc #886  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #888

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