PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/30/1961 - HFSID 295459

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Shortly after leaving office, Ike thanks a friend for his "comments on the political scene."
Typed Letter signed: "D. E.", 1 page, 7x10¼. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1961 June 30. On personal letterhead to "Dear George" [Strecker], in full: "Thank you for your interesting letter and for your comments on the political scene, as viewed from your Chicago stronghold. Of course I am delighted that you wrote to me so frankly. With warm regard, in which Mamie joins, to you and Frances, sincerely". Accompanied by original mailing envelope with Presidential frank. WWII hero and former Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was as successful in politics as he was in war. Eisenhower, who was elected the nation's 34th President (1953-1961) in 1952, was determined to bring order and efficiency to the Administration in a new era of "dynamic conservatism". His domestic program, termed "Modern Republicanism", called for greater state government power, reduced federal intervention in the economy, revamped tax laws, increased Social Security benefits and improved interstate highways. Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Eisenhower went to South Korea following his election and subsequently oversaw the truce that ended the Korean War (1950-1953). He delivered his "Atoms for Peace" proposal to the United Nations in December 1953 and led the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization the following year. Despite having suffered a serious heart attack in September 1955, Eisenhower won re-election by a landslide in 1956. In retirement at his Gettysburg farm, Eisenhower raised prize-winning Angus cattle. In his second term he issued the Eisenhower Doctrine, which provided aid to Middle-Eastern countries threatened by Communist aggression (January 1957), and dispatched troops to protect black youths integrating Little Rock Central High School (September 1957). Before leaving office, he urged vigilance against the rising power of a "military industrial complex." Eisenhower was privately disappointed with the results of the 1960 Presidential election, but - as this letter attests - refrained from public criticism of the new President, despite the setback Kennedy had just suffered at the Bay of Pigs. From the collection of George Strecker, an advertising executive at the Chicago Tribune who became close to the Eisenhower's through his wife, Frances, a long-time friend with Mamie Doud Eisenhower. Multiple mailing folds. Lightly worn at folds. Fine condition.