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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Unsigned typed letter, dictated as president, two pages, 7 x 10.25, White House letterhead, May 14, 1960. Letter to Carl Shipley at the National Press Building, in part: "No doubt you saw in the press that Congress has just approved continuance of the mutual security program. This, however, merely gave authority to appropriate. The money itself has to be separately legislated. In this latter respect, the mutual security program is so gravely endangered that I feel impelled to let you know of it, with the thought that you may wish to join me in an attempt to avoid irreparable damage to our country. This situation reminds me of a similar challenge two years ago. You will recall that I then turned to you and other friends for cooperation in explaining to the Congress and the public the course of responsibility and wisdom on the reorganization of the Department of Defense. You and they, to my everlasting gratitude, responded magnificently. At the end the needed law was passed, and today all America is much the better for it…

Very shortly—probably within the next two weeks, and while I am in Paris—the level of appropriations for the mutual security program for the next fiscal year will be decided in the House of Representatives. If a crippling cut is made by the House, there will belittle prospect of recouping in the Senate. As indicated in the enclosure, cuts of a billion to a billion and a half dollars are being forecast by powerfully placed House Members. I cannot but trouble over this possibility as I deal with the great issues confronting the free world, indeed all humanity, in the Summit Conferences in Paris. It is incomprehensible to me that at this point in world affairs we should face the possibility of undermining, by our own hand, our buttressing of free nations and our partnerships in defense against communist imperialism. At stake here are the NATO and SEATO alliance structures, and the defense postures of South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Pakistan. Also at stake are the strivings of hundreds of millions of people who look to us for cooperation in making it possible for them to grow in freedom rather than succumbing to an atheistic materialism bent upon domination of the world.

So crucial are these matters that I presume, once again, to suggest a crusade for our country. Those in Congress who support mutual security need active encouragement to lead this effort; those undecided need encouragement to place national and international need above parochial, political and other lesser considerations; those opposed need indication that resistance to America’s mutual security program, bipartisan since its very beginning, is, in these times, the course of retreat and, ultimately, national crisis. The Congress, having just authorized continuance of this program, will take up the appropriations in just a few days. To the extent that you share my concern over the announced intentions to slash these appropriations, and to the extent that you may be inclined to move constructively in connection therewith, I shall be at once gratified and grateful." In fine condition.

Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope and a typed transmittal letter from President Eisenhower's deputy assistant Bryce N. Harlow, in part: "The President hurriedly dictated the attached letter to you just before he left for Paris. He considered it of such importance and urgency that it had to be sent to you without his signature."

Launched in 1951 by President Harry S. Truman and renewed every year during Eisenhower's administration, the Mutual Security Act was a major foreign aid program that largely replaced the Marshall Plan. Its aim was to aid in the development of poor countries and contain the spread of communism. As Ike touches upon in this letter, the program annually produced political battles over expenditures and the balance between economic and military aid. The following year, under President Kennedy, it was replaced by a new foreign aid program with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.