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TO HIS SPEECHWRITER
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EISENHOWER, DWIGHT D. Group of 12 typed letters, including one Signed
in full as President, some Signed “D.E.” as President, some with secretarial signature
(“D.E.”), to his speechwriter Emmet J. Hughes, thanking him for his various supportive
efforts.Together 15 pages, 8vo or 4to,White House stationery; some with paperclip impres-
sion, horizontal folds.Two with the original envelope. (TFC) Vp, 1954-59
[4,000/6,000]
17 August 1956: “. . .If by any chance
this speech is not delivered, as written, to
the Convention, I am most certainly
going to plagiarize the parts that are not
quotes from former talks. In the half
dozen or so speeches that I have to make
this fall, I can already see dreariness
developing that will make my blood pres-
sure rise to astronomical heights. . . .
22 May 1957: “Again I am confronted
with the inadequacy of my words in try-
ing to express my appreciation of your
willingness to spend Monday and
Tuesday inWashington. I literally do not
know how we could have been able to
whip the speech last night into shape
without your help. . . .”
20 November 1958: “. . . I do not
believe that any such effort should be
couched specifically in the terms of a free-
dom-communist struggle. Rather I believe
it should be an effort of an affirmative
kind because of a conviction that we have
been woefully neglecting the field in
which the democracies and, indeed, all
civilizations based upon a religious faith,
should be particularly strong. We have
been tending too much toward the mater-
ial. We have too much thought of bombs and machines and gadgets as the arsenal of our national
and cultural strength. . . .The great problem is to get people—our own people and our friends—to
understand these things and to think on them objectively and with a sense of inspiration and uplift. . . .”
31 October 1959: “. . .There is only one clause in your letter to which I seriously object, because it
shows a misconception on your part. It reads ‘. . . the spirit and the direction of foreign policy as con-
ceived and executived [sic] by the Department of State over these years.’ The basic conception and
direction of foreign policy is my responsibility and not one of any other Department or individual.”
WITH
—retained copy of a two-page letter from Hughes to the President, warning him of the publica-
tion of his forth-coming book entitled,
America the Vincible,
which Hughes expects Eisenhower
“will neither approve of, nor concur with.” NewYork, 22 October 1959.
These letters present the trajectory of their friendship, which eventually came to an end upon the
release of Hughes’ book,
The Ordeal of Power,
in 1961.