PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/13/1967 - HFSID 84649

"IN VIETNAM, FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS, WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO WAGE ALL-OUT WAR TO SUSTAIN OUR INTEREST AND TO SUPPORT OUR FRIENDS".
 
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. Important TLS: "Ike E", 2p, 6½x8½, separate sheets. Gettsyburg, Pa., 1967 October 13. To Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1953-1958) and his Secretary of Commerce (1958-1959). In full: "As I see it the Committee for Peace with Freedom is not trying to establish another pressure group. It is merely trying to place the Vietnam situation in perspective so that the American people have a rounded rather than a fragmented view of the affair. I agree with Dr. Conant that the statement is not perfect. However, in the one example you quote, 'we cannot afford not to suppress naked aggression,' while another says '...policy of non-compromising, although limited, resistance to aggression,' I suggest there is really no contradiction. In Vietnam, for a number of reasons, we have decided not to wage all-out war to sustain our interest and to support our friends. Philosophically, however, the statement in the first paragraph is quite correct. This does not mean that I am completely happy with the entire statement. What I want to emphasize clearly -- and certainly I don't give a hoot whether McGeorge Bundy chooses to sign or not -- is that some group should be trying to disassociate itself from all categories such as doves and hawks and strive to help America regain some feeling of unity in time of crisis. I am quite sure that if you and I should sit down together we could write a much shorter, simpler and more understandable paper than was sent up here. But if something in the statement seems to you a fatal flaw, I would be perfectly ready to go back to Douglas or anyone else to see whether the matter could not be straightened out. I would rather have you on my side than any of these people who are such purists that they lose sight of fundamentals and objectives." Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander in WWII and former 34th U.S. President and Commander in Chief, comments to his good friend about a statement issued by the non-partisan Citizen's Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam, an organization founded earlier in October by Eisenhower, former President Harry S Truman and several former Cabinet members. During its brief existence, the Committee sought to foster popular support for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by raising public awareness of the American role in the conflict. A month after writing this letter, General Eisenhower joined fellow Five-Star General of the Army Omar N. Bradley in a nationally televised broadcast from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, promoting informed support for the war. In this letter, Eisenhower writes he agrees with renowned educator and chemist JAMES B. CONANT, former President of Harvard, senior adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission and Ambassador to West Germany. He also stressed he did not care if McGEORGE BUNDY signed the statement. Bundy, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs under Kennedy and Johnson (1961-1966), was an influential voice in the formation of U.S. policy in Vietnam, advocating a strategy of "sustained reprisals" in answer to the guerrilla activity of the Viet Cong. Following his resignation in 1966, a year before this letter, however, Bundy urged that the war not be escalated, contrary to Eisenhower's belief. President Johnson eagerly sought Eisenhower's advice on the growing Vietnam crisis, even arranging biweekly conferences. Eisenhower supported U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and advised Johnson to ignore critics such as Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. Fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style: 39½x22¾.