The Age of Eisenhower

by William I Hitchcock

  3. Ann Whitman diary, February 9 and March 19, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary Series, box 8, DDEL. Ann Whitman noted that Eisenhower told Len Hall he would run for reelection on February 6. See her entry for February 13, 1956.

  4. Press conferences, February 29, 1956, and March 7, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 266–67, 287. Eisenhower told Foster Dulles on February 27 that he had doubts about Nixon. Nixon “had not gained the popular support he [Eisenhower] thought he deserved, and the polls indicated that he would be defeated” if he ran for president now in Ike’s place. Eisenhower “doubted that eight years as Vice President would really help him to become President.” Memorandum of conversation, February 27, 1956, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 8, DDEL.

  5. Diary entry, March 13, 1956, Papers as President, DDE Diary Series, box 9, DDEL.

  6. Press conference, April 25, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 431–32; Ann Whitman diary, April 9 and April 26, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary Series, box 8, DDEL; Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1956; New York Times, April 27, 1956.

  7. Nixon, Six Crises, 161.

  8. James Reston, “The Eisenhower Touch,” New York Times, May 28, 1956.

  9. Richard Rovere, “Trial Balances,” New Yorker, December 1955, reprinted in Affairs of State, 337–73.

  10. Stevenson’s announcement speech is in New York Times, November 16, 1955; for his remark about mediocrity, see New York Times, November 20, 1955. For later attacks, see New York Times, March 4 and 11, April 23, May 9, 1956; Los Angeles Times, March 3 and 11; and Washington Post, March 7, 1956.

  11. L. Brent Bozell, “National Trends,” National Review, January 11, 1956, 14.

  12. William F. Buckley, “Mr. Eisenhower’s Decision and the Eisenhower Program,” National Review, March 21, 1956, 9–10.

  13. This account comes from Snyder’s typescript memoir, Howard Snyder Papers, box 11, DDEL.

  14. A detailed chronology was printed in the New York Times on June 9, 1956. General Heaton gave a post-op press conference, covered in New York Times, June 10, 1956.

  15. James Reston, New York Times, June 10, 1956; Clinical record, narrative summary by General Heaton, August 10, 1956, Snyder Papers, box 4, DDEL.

  16. Letters to Paul Helms, June 15, 1956, to Floyd Odlum and Jackie Cochran, June 21, 1956, and to David Eisenhower, July 14, 1956, PDDE, 17:2188, 2191, 2203. Ann Whitman notes, June 8, 1956, and June 8–July 16 summary, and notes on legislative meeting, July 10, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman File, Ann Whitman Diary, box 8, DDEL. For Democratic critics, New York Times, July 23, 1956.

  17. On Kilpatrick, Anthony Lewis, New York Times, January 22, 1956; Kilpatrick interviewed by Jim Bishop, Washington Post, March 31, 1956. Also Joseph Thorndike, “ ‘The Sometimes Sordid Level of Race and Segregation’: James J. Kilpatrick and the Virginia Campaign against Brown,” in Lassiter and Lewis, The Moderates’ Dilemma, 51–71.

  18. Copies of the state resolutions may be seen in Records as President, General File, box 918, DDEL. On Alabama, see New York Times, February 2, 1956. A useful survey is Bartley, A History of the South, 187–222.

  19. “The Southern Manifesto,” Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University, http://sti.clemson.edu/component/content/article/192-general-info/790-1956-qsouthern-manifestoq.

  20. Washington Post, January 28, 1956. Eastland’s charge was in fact false: Susan Eisenhower attended an integrated preschool kindergarten at Fort Belvoir, where Maj. John Eisenhower was stationed.

  21. New York Times, January 30, 1956; New Journal and Guide, Norfolk, Va., February 18, 1956.

  22. Press conference, March 14, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 304–5.

  23. Eisenhower to Billy Graham, March 22, 1956, Papers as President, Name Series, box 16, DDEL.

  24. Billy Graham letter, March 27, 1956, Papers as President, Name Series, box 16, DDEL; press conference, March 21, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 340.

  25. Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 200; Rabb memo to Sherman Adams, August 8, 1956, Gerald Morgan Records, box 23, DDEL; Pre-press conference briefing, August 8, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary, box 8, DDEL.

  26. Diary entry, August 14, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary, box 8, DDEL.

  27. Diary entry, August 19, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Diary, box 8, DDEL. Text of GOP platform in New York Times, August 22, 1956.

  28. For press coverage of the controversy over the civil rights plank, see New York Times, August 19, 1956; Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1956; Washington Post, August 22, 1956. Larson, Eisenhower, 124–28. For acceptance speech text, Washington Post, August 24, 1956. For an equally critical assessment of Ike’s evasion of civil rights in 1956, see Morrow, Forty Years a Guinea Pig, 103–6.

  29. New York Times, September 4, 6, and 11, 1956; New Journal and Guide, Norfolk, Va., September 8, 1956; Chicago Tribune, September 8, 1956; Life, September 17, 1956, 34–35.

  30. For a detailed account of these events, see “A Tentative Description and Analysis of the School Desegregation Crisis in Clinton, TN,” typescript, written by researchers from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, December 1, 1956, in Records as President, General File, box 916, DDEL. For national press, see New York Times, September 2, 3, and 4, 1956; and a longer magazine essay by George Barrett, “Study in Desegregation: The Clinton Story,” New York Times, September 16, 1956. Also Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1956; Los Angeles Times, September 2, 1956; and Washington Post, September 2, 1956.

  31. Press conference, September 5, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 732–45.

  32. Washington Post, September 8, 1956.

  33. “Address at the Cow Palace on Accepting the Nomination of the Republican National Convention,” August 23, 1956, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=10583; New York Times, August 19, 1956; Folliard in Washington Post, August 22, 1956.

  34. Joseph and Stewart Alsop, “Today and Tomorrow,” Washington Post, August 24, 1956; Life, September 3, 1956, 32.

  35. Speech at kickoff picnic, September 12, 1956, White House Central Files, Official File, box 599, DDEL. For details on the picnic, see Ann Whitman notes, September 12, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman File, Ann Whitman Diary, box 8, DDEL. For further efforts to refine the core of “modern Republicanism,” see Eisenhower’s statement of November 14, 1956, White House Central File, Official File, box 602, DDEL.

  36. Larson, A Republican Looks at His Party; Stebenne, Modern Republican, 151–75.

  37. For details on the campaign’s travel itinerary, see Additional Papers of Thomas Stephens, box 27, DDEL; Young and Rubicam, Records of Citizens for Eisenhower, box 5, DDEL. John Eisenhower, Strictly Personal, 189; Life, September 17, 1956.

  CHAPTER 13: DOUBLE CROSS AT SUEZ

  Epigraph: Eisenhower quoted in Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 217.

  1. The British cabinet took the threat to the canal and the oil supply very seriously. See, for example, a cabinet memo of October 13, 1955, “Middle East Oil,” in which the cabinet agreed that Britain’s dependence on oil required a long-term strategic commitment to the region and a larger amount of aid for friendly regimes there (Porter and Stockwell, British Imperial Policy and Decolonization, 385–92).

  2. Eisenhower telephone call with Dulles, September 23, 1955; call with Herbert Hoover Jr., November 28, 1955; call with Dulles, November 29, 1955, in Dulles Papers, Telephone Calls Series, box 11, DDEL. A lucid and detailed account of the overlapping crises of 1956 can be found in Nichols, Eisenhower 1956.

  3. Memorandum from Dulles to Eisenhower, March 28, 1956, and approval by Eisenhower, FRUS 1955–57, 15:419–24. For Ike’s growing qualms about Nasser, see diary entry, March 8, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 15:326–27.

  4. Dulles and Eisenhower conversation, July 19, 1956, and Dulles meeting with Ahmed Hussein of Egypt, July 19, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 15:861–62, 867–73. DDE, Waging Peace, 33.

  5. Washington Post, July 27, 1956.

  6. Horne, Harold Macmilla
n, 1:395; Eden to Eisenhower, July 27, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:9–11.

  7. Memorandum by NSC Planning Board on NSC 5602, and NSC 5602/1, “Basic National Security Policy,” FRUS 1955–57, 16:194–95, 242–68. For an excellent collection of essays on Eisenhower’s engagement with these issues, see Statler and Johns, The Eisenhower Administration, the Third World, and the Globalization of the Cold War.

  8. Dulles-Eisenhower phone call, July 30, 1956; Murphy to Dulles, July 31, 1956; Eisenhower meeting with Dulles and other leading advisers, July 31, 1956; Eisenhower to Eden, July 31, 1956, all in FRUS 1955–57, 16:46–47, 60–62, 62–68, 69–71.

  9. Dulles-Macmillan meeting, August 1, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:108–9.

  10. Owen, “The Effect of Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s Illness on His Decision-making during the Suez Crisis.”

  11. Eden to Eisenhower, August 27, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:304–5.

  12. Eisenhower to Eden, September 2, 1956, and Eden to Eisenhower, September 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:355–58, 400–403. Eisenhower and Dulles worked closely together in formulating these messages. See memoranda of conversation, August 29 and 30, 1956, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda, box 4, DDEL.

  13. Eisenhower-Dulles phone call, September 7, 1956, Dulles Papers, Telephone Calls Series, box 11, DDEL; Eisenhower to Eden, September 8, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:431–33.

  14. Eisenhower-Dulles conversation, October 2, 1956; NSC meeting, October 4, 1956; Dulles conversation with Selwyn Lloyd and Christian Pineau, October 5, 1956; editorial note, Dulles brothers conversation, October 18, 1956, all in FRUS 1955–57, 16:625–26, 632–34, 639–45, 745–46.

  15. For fully documented and superbly written histories of the Suez affair, see Kyle, Suez; Lucas, Divided We Stand. American policy is well covered in Hahn, Caught in the Middle East. On the specifics of the deal, see Avi Shlaim, “The Protocol of Sèvres, 1956: Anatomy of a War Plot,” International Affairs 73, no. 3 (1997): 509–30.

  16. Adams, Firsthand Report, 256.

  17. On the origins and impact of the speech, see Taubman, Khrushchev, 270–89.

  18. These events can be followed in Hitchcock, The Struggle for Europe, 206–13.

  19. Analysts in Washington closely followed the impact of the speech, though it took time to get details on the exact contents. Ambassador Bohlen reported the thrust of the speech to Washington in early March, and by April the CIA had secured a full text through Israeli intelligence. See NSC discussion, March 22, 1956; State Department analysis, March 30, 1956; report on briefing by Ambassador Bohlen, April 11, 1956, all in FRUS 1955–57, 24:72–75, 75–82, 93–95. Bohlen’s own account is in Witness to History, 393–404. On June 4 the State Department publicly released the text they had procured. The cautious American position emerged over the summer and fall of 1956. See, for example, NSC 5608, July 3, 1956, and meeting of the Policy Planning Staff, October 23, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 25:190–94, 259–60.

  20. New York Times, October 26, 1956.

  21. NSC meeting, October 26, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 25:295–99.

  22. Eisenhower-Dulles phone calls, October 26, 1956, and address by John Foster Dulles to Dallas Council on World Affairs, October 27, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 25:305–7, 317–18; Dulles telegram to Bohlen, October 29, 1956, Dulles Papers, Telephone Calls Series, box 11, DDEL.

  23. On the U-2, see Pedlow and Welzenbach, The CIA and the U-2 Program, 112–21. Telegram from embassy in Israel, October 26, 1956; intelligence reports on Israeli activity, October 26 and 28, 1956; Dulles comment in telegram to embassy in London, October 26, 1956; Eisenhower message to Ben-Gurion, October 27, 1956, all in FRUS 1955–57, 16:785, 787–88, 798–800, 790, 795.

  24. “Report of Examination” by Drs. Howard Snyder and Leonard Heaton, Hagerty Papers, box 7, DDEL; Hughes, The Ordeal of Power of Power, 212.

  25. Eisenhower-Dulles Telephone Conversation, October 28, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:807.

  26. Dulles telegram to embassy in Paris, October 29, 1956, especially note 1, FRUS 1955–57, 16:815–16.

  27. Conference with the president, October 29, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:833–40.

  28. Editorial note, FRUS 1955–57, 16:840–42.

  29. On Eisenhower’s appearance, Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 215; letter to Eden, October 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:848–50.

  30. Eden to Eisenhower, October 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:856–57.

  31. Eisenhower-Dulles phone call, October 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:863. For the text of the ultimatum, Washington Post, October 31, 1956.

  32. Dulles meetings with Hervé Alphand, French ambassador, and Sir John Coulson, British chargé, October 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:867–68, 874–75.

  33. Meeting with the president, October 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:873.

  34. Text of Stevenson speech, Washington Post, October 24, 1956; Adams-Dulles telephone call, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversation Series, box 11, DDEL.

  35. Editorial note, FRUS 1955–57, 16:881–82.

  36. Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 218–21.

  37. New York Times, November 1, 1956.

  38. Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1956; Walter Lippmann, “Disaster in the Middle East,” Washington Post, November 1, 1956; editorial, Washington Post, November 3, 1956.

  39. There is much new evidence on the 1956 revolution in Hungary. See in particular Kramer, “The Soviet Union and the 1956 Crises in Hungary and Poland.” For an important collection of material on Soviet actions, there is Gyorkei and Horvath, 1956: Soviet Military Intervention in Hungary.

  40. NSC meeting, November 1, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:902–16; FRUS 1955–57, 25:358–59.

  41. “Memorandum for the Record,” October 15, 1956, PDDE, 17:2328–29. He wrote to Swede Hazlett the next day, “I gave strict orders to the State Department that they should inform Israel that we would handle our affairs exactly as though we didn’t have a Jew in America” (November 2, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:943–45).

  42. Memorandum by the president, November 1, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:924–25.

  43. United Nations General Assembly, Official Records, First Emergency Special Session, Plenary Meeting 561, Thursday, November 1, 1956, 10–12. New York: General Assembly of the United Nations, 1956.

  44. Address at Convention Hall, Philadelphia, November 1, 1956, PPP: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1066–74.

  45. Kyle, Suez, 428–32; Eden’s reply to the UN resolution, November 3, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:946.

  46. The resolution text is in editorial note, FRUS 1955–57, 16:960–64.

  47. New York Times, November 5, 1956.

  48. Khrushchev’s thinking can be followed in Kramer, “The Malin Notes on the Crises in Hungary and Poland,” 393–94.

  49. DDE, Waging Peace, 89; editorial note, FRUS 1955–57, 25:392–93; Luce to Eisenhower via telegram from Dillon, November 4, 1956, Records as President, White House Central Files, Subject Series, box 32, DDEL.

  50. Eden message, November 5, 1956, and memorandum of conversation, November 5, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:984–86, 986–88.

  51. The messages were printed in New York Times, November 6, 1956. See Bulganin’s message to Eisenhower, November 5, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:993–94.

  52. Bohlen telegram, November 5, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:995–96.

  53. Memorandum of conference, November 5, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1000–1001.

  54. Lasby, Eisenhower’s Heart Attack, 238.

  55. Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 223.

  56. New York Times, November 6, 1956; White House news release, November 5, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1007–8.

  57. Memorandum of conference, November 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1014.

  58. Bohlen telegram, November 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1016–17.

  59. Memorandum summarizing the November 6, 1956, meeting, written by Col. Andrew Goodpaster, Ann Whitman File, DDE Diary Series, Staff Memos, box 19, DDEL; telegram from Joint Chiefs of Staff, November 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1035–36.


  60. For the economic dimension of the story see Kunz, The Economic Consequences of the Suez Crisis, esp. chapter 6.

  61. Lucas, Divided We Stand, 292–93; Kyle, Suez, 464–68.

  62. Transcript of telephone conversation, November 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1025–26. Eisenhower put this in writing to Eden a few hours later (Eisenhower to Eden, November 6, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1028–29).

  63. Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 227.

  64. Hughes, The Ordeal of Power, 228.

  65. New York Times, November 7, 1956.

  66. Phone call from Eden, November 7, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1040.

  67. Goodpaster memo, November 7, 1956; Eisenhower call to Eden, November 7, 1956; Eisenhower meeting with Dulles, November 7, 1956, all in FRUS 1955–57, 16:1043–44, 1045–46, 1049–53.

  68. Eisenhower to Eden, November 7, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1056; Eisenhower discussion with Dulles, November 7, 1956, Dulles Papers, White House Memorandum Series, box 4, DDEL.

  69. NSC meeting, November 8, 1956, and message to Eden, November 11, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1070–86, 1110–11.

  70. Aldrich to Hoover, November 19, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1150–52; Aldrich to Hoover, November 20, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Files, Dulles-Herter Series, box 8, DDEL.

  71. Dillon telegram, November 12, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1117–20.

  72. Aldrich telegram, November 19, 1956, and Hoover to Aldrich, November 20, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1163, 1169–70.

  73. Letter to Winston Churchill, November 27, 1956, PDDE, 17:2412–15.

  74. Lucas, Divided We Stand, 316–17; Aldrich telegram, November 29, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1210–11.

  75. Lucas, Divided We Stand, 322–23; Hoover telegram to diplomatic missions, November 29, 1956, and NSC meeting, November 30, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1214–15, 1218–29.

  76. Memorandum by the president, November 8, 1956, and Eisenhower telephone call with Hoover, November 13, 1956, FRUS 1955–57, 16:1088–89, 1122.

  77. Bohlen to State Department, November 14, 1956, Papers as President, Ann Whitman Files, Dulles-Herter Series, box 8, DDEL.