Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower

A Documentary History

E dited with Commentary by Timoth y Walch HERBERT HOOVER AND DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER Copyright © Timothy Walch, 2013. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-33408-4 A ll rights reserved. Frontispiece: President Eisenhower and former president Herbert Hoover walk to board a plane at Washington, DC, airport prior to their flight to Colorado. August 1954. Courtesy of the National Park Service. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Pal grave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46257-5 ISBN 978-1-137-33409-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137334091 Librar y of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower : a documentary history / edited with commentary by Timothy Walch. pages cm 1. Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890–1969— Correspondence. 2. Hoover, Herbert, 1874–1964—Correspondence. 3. Presidents—United States—Correspondence. 4. United States— Politics and government—1953–1961. 5. United States—Politics and government—1945–1953. I. Walch, Timothy, 1947– E 836.A4 2013 973.921092Ј2—dc23 2013014746 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: July 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my colleagues—past and present— at America’s Presidential Libraries

Let us remember that great human advances have not been brought about by mediocre men and women. They have been brought about by distinctly uncommon people with vital sparks of leadership. —Herbert Hoover, 1948 This page intentionally left blank Contents

Prefacee ix

Introduction 1 1 Gettin g to Know One Another, 1945–1948 1 1 2 Conflict over Policy and Politics, 1949–1952 37 3 Negotiating the Nomination, 1952 63 4 A Tense Courtship, 1952 85 5 Back to Work, 1953 113 6 R eorganization Redux, 1954–1955 13 9 7 Insuring a Second Term, 1956 165 8 Dear Mr. President, 1957 1 91 9 Coming to Closure, 1958–1959 217 10 Drifting Away, 1960–1965 247

Further Reading and Researchh 259 Indexx 263 This page intentionally left blank Preface

The documents in this volume constitute the core of a sizable quantity of historical materials that concern the uneasy collaboration between two Republican presidents of the United States. Given their similarities, one might presume that Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower would have been members of a mutual-admiration society. Both men had been born into religious families living on the Midwestern fron- tier. Both men were self-made and among the first members of their families to graduate from college. Both men had distinguished careers before they were elected to the presidency. Perhaps most important, both men shared a common conservative political philosophy and were critics of the bloated excesses of the New Deal. And yet, the relationship between Hoover and Eisenhower never got much beyond formalities. It may be that Ike was uneasy in address- ing the man who was once his commander in chief. It may be that Hoover could never quite forgive Eisenhower for snatching the 1952 Republican presidential nomination away from one of his proté g és, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. We may never know the fundamental reasons for the lack of collegiality and warmth between these two titans of the twentieth century. Even though the relationship lacked personal warmth, there is a fair amount of textual documentation showing that Hoover and Eisenhower could work together in common cause in the years after World War II. To be sure, the largest body of materials in this volume focuses on the contentious contest for the Republican nomination for president in 1952, but other issues are represented as well. Of note is the effort by Hoover to enlist Eisenhower in the campaign to col- lect documents for the Hoover institution after World War II. Also well represented is their mutual establishment of the second Hoover Commission to reorganize the executive branch and the campaign to implement its recommendations in the 1950s. In addition, there are a small number of documents from the end of the 1950s con- cerning Hoover’s last official assignment on behalf of the United States—as the US representative to the World’s Fair in Brussels in x PREFACE

1958. In between are a smattering of letters that celebrate various awards, speeches, and political victories. This volume includes the key documents that fit together to tell that story. Included are letters, reports, and telegrams that the two men sent directly to one another as well as diary entries and memo- randa that document their meetings. Also included are passages from speeches and press commentary in which one president mentions the other. Finally, the volume includes candid comments that the two men made about one another as captured in letters they wrote to friends and associates. The first documents in this volume are from the months after World War II, but they may not be the earliest communication between the two men. As an aide to the Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote several reports that were forwarded to President Herbert Hoover for his information and consideration. There are two extant reports of this nature included in Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905–1941, edited by Daniel D. Holt and James Leyerzapf (Baltimore, MD, John Hopkins University Press, 1998). Also included in this volume are Eisenhower’s personal diary entries for the months from November 1932 to December 1933. There is only one salient mention of the presidency, written on February 28, 1933, but it is telling:

Things are not going to take an upturn until more power is centered in one man’s hands. Only in that way will confidence be inspired; will it be possible to do some of the obvious things for speeding recovery, and will we be freed from the pernicious influence of noisy and selfish minorities. For two years I have been called “Dictator Ike” because I believe that virtual dictatorship must be exercised by our President. So now I keep still—but I still believe it.

That passage is the sum total of Eisenhower’s commentary on the Hoover administration and there is no evidence that the two men ever met while Hoover was in office. These reports and the diary entry are not included in this volume, because their ties to the two men are tenuous at best. Also excluded from the volume are passages from oral histories and memoirs recorded or published long after the events took place. In my opinion, these types of documents are generally unreliable in recording the real-time twists and turns of the collaboration of these two presidents. Also excluded are many of the pro forma invitations and birthday greetings exchanged by Hoover and Eisenhower and the inevitable thank you notes that followed such expressions of hospitality and good cheer. PREFACE xi

The book is divided into ten chapters that reflect the segments in the relationship between the two men. The first two chapters include the earliest known documents exchanged by them and concentrate on Hoover’s efforts to enlist Eisenhower in locating documents for the Hoover Institution, making use of Ike as a consultant to the first Hoover commission, and the first assessment of Ike’s plans for a run at the White House. The next two chapters are from the political campaign of 1952—preconvention through Election Day—and show the arc of suspicion, conflict, and cooperation between Hoover and Eisenhower in their efforts to return the White House to Republican hands. Chapters 5 through 8 document the work of the second Hoover commission and Hoover’s efforts to light fire under the White House to support his recommendations. Hoover was never satisfied with the results, always expecting more from a Republican White House. Woven through these chapters is the bright thread of presidential politics and the prospect of Ike’s reelection. The last two chapters show the working relationship between the two presidents fading away as the work of the Hoover commission came to a close. The highlight of these years was Hoover’s return to Belgium at Eisenhower’s request as the U.S. representative to the World’s Fair in 1958. This volume is subtitled a “documentary history,” a term used to place emphasis on both the documents themselves and on the historical commentary that opens each chapter and precedes each document. Although the documents speak for themselves, the commentary sets the historical context and provides additional information on the issues and correspondents, and links the documents together. It is hoped that the commentary will encourage readers to follow the story of the relationship between these two presidents as it unfolds in the documents. The documents in this volume are from two institutions—the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. These two research institutions are part of the network of presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Some of the documents are unique to one reposi- tory; others appear in collections at both institutions. Many of the Eisenhower documents have been published in a multivolume schol- arly work entitled The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhowerr, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press between 1978 and 1996. Many of the copies of the Hoover documents used for this volume were found in the Post-Presidential Files of the Papers of Herbert Hoover at the Hoover Library. Complete photocopies of all the documents included in this volume have been deposited at the Hoover xii PREFACE

Presidential Library. Inquiries on obtaining full copies of these documents should be directed to [email protected]. A volume such as this one would not have been possible without the contributions of many friends and colleagues at the Hoover and Eisenhower presidential libraries. In particular, I wish to salute the generous counsel of Daniel D. Holt, director emeritus of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and his able successor as director, Karl Weissenbach. Deputy director Timothy Rives was instrumental in evaluating the documents selected and in clearing these documents for publication. Audiovisual archivist Kathy Struss was a pathfinder in locating possible photographs for the book. In like manner, the work of the editorial staff of The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (21 volumes, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1978– 1996) as edited by Louis Galambos, Daun Van Ee, and their staff alerted me to obscure but important documents that highlight the sometimes contentious relationship between these two presidents. These Eisenhower documents are available both in book form and online att http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/ /. My greatest debt, however, is to the extraordinary staff at the Hoover Presidential Library where I worked for 23 years. In particular, I want to thank my friend and colleague Dwight M. Miller, who collaborated with me on similar volumes on Hoover’s partner- ship and rivalry with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Dwight collected copies of a number of the documents used in this volume during his 30-year tenure at West Branch. Also helpful in reviewing the contents of this book and locating additional documents were Matthew Schaefer and Spencer Howard, two reference archivists without comparison. Audiovisual archivist Lynn Smith was tireless in searching for photographs. The leadership of the library, as reflected in the vision of my predecessor as director, Richard Norton Smith, and my successor as director, Thomas Schwartz made the Hoover Library an exceptionally conducive place to work. Finally, I want to thank my longtime assistant at the library, Rosemary Paul, who transcribed many of these documents and carefully proofread them against the original copies. Without Rosemary’s assistance, this book would not have made it to completion. TIMOTHY WALCH Iowa City, Iowa Presidents Day, 2013