Presidential Papers, Doc#993 To Gabriel Hauge, 5 January 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #993; January 5, 1959
To Gabriel Hauge
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part VI: Setbacks; November 1958 to February 1959
Chapter 15: "Debate is the breath of life"

 

Dear Gabe: I just have your note and I realize that you do have a bit of a problem to solve.1

Foster has a date to meet Mr. Mikoyan this noon and I believe it is tentatively planned that I am to receive him at least for a short visit, possibly tomorrow.2 If I could give you a substantive answer after we have had some opportunity to make a guess as to his serious purpose in coming to the United States, I think it would be more to the point than I can now say. My shooting-from-the-hip answer, which I was about to dictate, could well be wide of the mark that I would set up after a little better knowledge.

Incidentally, Foster is just back from Jamaica and I hear that he has got a virus. However, the doctors are hopeful that it is a very light case and I trust he will be able to talk to Mr. Mikoyan today, as planned.3

In spite of the temptation to give you, out of my own great personal wisdom, an immediate reaction to your question, I will let the matter wait until my charming (! acw) secretary brings it back to my attention.4 As ever

1 Secretary Dulles had told the National Security Council in December that the Soviet Union had requested permission for Deputy Premier Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan to visit the United States as a guest of the Soviet ambassador. Dulles believed that the real purpose of the visit was to assess American public opinion regarding Berlin and other international issues (NSC meeting minutes, [Dec. 18, 1958], AWF/NSC; see also State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. X, pt. 1, Eastern Europe Region; Soviet Union; Cyprus, pp. 207 - 9; and Herter to Eisenhower, Jan. 2, 1959, AWF/I: Russia Mikoyan Visit).

Hauge, former Presidential Assistant for Economic Affairs, had written Eisenhower about an address he was to make on January 14 before the Economic Club in New York. The club had invited Mikoyan to be the guest of honor and to speak briefly at the end of the program. Hauge had asked Eisenhower for guidance. Should he ignore or capitalize on the Soviet official's attendance? "Had he not been present," Hauge wrote, "I would simply have gone ahead with my discussion of economic and fiscal policy pitched to a plea that the thousand businessmen in the audience go down the line for your budget lock, stock and barrel" (Hauge to Eisenhower, Jan. 2, 1959, AWF/A).

2 For Dulles's two-hour meeting with Mikoyan on this day and Eisenhower's meeting on January 17 see the following document.

3 On Dulles's Jamaica vacation see no. 981.

4 For developments see the following document. Ann C. Whitman was Eisenhower's secretary.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Gabriel Hauge, 5 January 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 993. 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/993.cfm

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