<--PREV Doc #94  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #96 Document #95; April 1, 1957 To Lauris Norstad Series: EM, AWF, Administration 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 2: Foreign Aid   Dear Larry: Many thanks for your fine letter. I hasten to send you a short reply because I very much want you to continue giving me your impressions of individuals, governments and conditions in the NATO region.1 Another reason for writing you immediately is because there will soon arrive in Paris, as the American Ambassador, my good friend Amory Houghton. He is a fine type of American businessman and will work seriously at his job.2 I told him that you could often be of great help to him because of your long familiarity with the personalities of the region, and I would appreciate it if you would make some arrangement for meeting him promptly after he arrives. I assure you that it will not be long before you like him immensely. Give my warm greetings to Isabelle3 and, of course, all the very best to yourself. As ever 1 General Norstad, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, had written Eisenhower regarding British plans to reduce their NATO forces (for background see no. 57). Norstad had been "particularly worried about the dangers of a definite split between the Nato members on this question." The decision by the Western European Union to study the issue of force levels, he said, would give the organization "a little more time to work out the answer"; however, the issue would take "some rather delicate handling to avoid even a more serious difference of opinion in the fall." Norstad had just completed visits to the NATO capitals and had told Eisenhower about meetings with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Oliviera Salazar in Lisbon and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in Bonn. Norstad reported that Salazar, who had been concerned that U.S. action in the Middle East had damaged the NATO alliance by destroying the prestige of Great Britain and France, had accepted his argument that the over-all strength of the alliance was more important than the individual strength of any of its members. Adenauer had declared his "firm friendship" with the United States and was optimistic about his chances for reelection in September (Norstad to Eisenhower, Mar. 29, 1957, AWF/A; see also State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955 - 1957, vol. IV, Western European Security and Integration [1986], pp. 165 - 66). Eisenhower would send Norstad's letter to Secretary Dulles on this same day. "I do this," the President wrote, "not so much because it provides anything particularly new (except possibly for the paragraph on Salazar) but because it gives you some idea of the calibre and character of Norstad" (AWF/D). 2 Amory Houghton (A.B. Harvard 1921) was chairman of the board of the Corning Glass Corporation (see Galambos, Chief of Staff, no. 1304). Eisenhower had named Houghton U.S. Ambassador to France on February 25. 3 Norstad's wife was the former Isabelle Helen Jenkins. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Lauris Norstad, 1 April 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 95. 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/95.cfm <--PREV Doc #94  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #96

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