The 77th Conference

On the last day of his third year as President of the U.S., Dwight Eisenhower addressed himself, publicly and frankly, to the prime political question of the U.S. and the world. Before his 77th formal press conference, crowded by 290 reporters, cluttered by the paraphernalia of TV cameras and cables, the President read out a telegram he said he was sending to Harry E. Jackson, the deputy secretary of state of New Hampshire.

"I have your courteous telegram of Jan. 14," the President read, "advising me that petitions have been filed at your office which qualify my name for inclusion on the presidential preference primary ... I am grateful that the petitioners have expressed this kind of personal confidence in me. I do not feel that I should interpose any objection to such entry."

Progress: Normal. The President continued: "However, because I must make clear to all that lack of objection cannot be construed as any final decision on my part relative to a candidacy for a second term in office I now hold, I hope that all who vote in the Republican primaries in 1956 will carefully weigh all the possibilities and personalities that may be involved.

"Freedom to select, nominate and elect a candidate to public office is basic to our American political system. Because I deeply believe that every citizen should have the widest possible choice in expressing his own preference in such matters, I would hope that the accident of my illness and the necessary period for determining the degree of my recovery would not have the effect of interfering with the privilege of every member of our party to express his preference for the presidential candidate of his choice.

"It would be idle to pretend that my health can be wholly restored to the excellent state in which the doctors believed it to be in mid-September. At the same time my doctors report to me that the progress I am making toward a reasonable level of strength is normal and satisfactory. My future life must be carefully regulated to avoid excessive fatigue. My reasons for obedience to the medical authorities are not solely personal; I must obey them out of respect for the responsibilities I carry.

"The personal decision to which I refer will be rendered as soon as it is firmly fixed in my own mind. I shall strive to see that it is based as to my best judgment on the good of our country."

As for how he was bearing up under the stresses of his job, the President noted: "I have had some quite intensive days--yesterday was--and I think that with the --by following closely, as closely as I can, the regime the doctors laid down, that so far I have gotten by very well."

Item: Dulles. The President then underwent some thoroughly intensive questioning on a troublesome issue, the LIFE article about Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' views of how full-scale war was averted.

Said the President:

"Now, I don't know all of the things that are alleged to have been said. I have complete faith in Mr. Dulles. I do not know whether they were unfortunate expressions used in that article by him or by someone supposed to be reporting them. But I know he is devoted to peace. He has spent his lifetime in this kind of work. He is a man of great professional skill in the field, and to my mind, the best Secretary of State I have ever known . . .

"This is what I say: that I am supporting before the world a program of peace. It is really waging peace, based upon moral principles of decency and justice and right. If you are going to do that and are not going to be guilty, every time the thing looks dangerous, of a Munich, you have got to stand firmly. You may interpret that as being at the brink of something, because the other fellow can react according to his own desires and what he believes to be his best interests.

"But when it comes to the matter of war, there is only one place that I would go, and that is to the Congress of the United States, and tell them what I believe."

Item: Ridgway. As the President expected, a reporter brought up another troublesome issue: General Matthew B. Ridgway's attack in the Satevepost upon the Eisenhower Administration's defense policies. The President dismissed, abruptly, General Ridgway's contention that domestic politics influenced the reduction of the U.S. Army: "Well, first, if ever I have made a military decision out of deference to internal politics then I have been guilty of violating my own best determinations. I am determined never in that field to be influenced by such a thing." The President advised his questioners to check with Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson whether Ridgway had or had not concurred in the 1954 decision to reduce Army manpower.

Then the President bore down hard on Ridgway: "As all of you here know, since back in 1940, I have been receiving advice from every kind of military assistant. Their advice is often expressing their own deeply felt, but, let us say, narrow fears.

"If I had listened to all of the advice

I got during those years, there never would have been a plan for crossing the Channel. Indeed, I think we wouldn't have crossed the Atlantic Ocean. We certainly would never have invaded Africa and the Mediterranean, and I know we never would have crossed the Channel until yet. So finally there comes places where people in authority must make decisions based on the best advice they get."

The Date? Reporters kept probing back to the President's health and his future plans. The President replied: "I will say this: I myself said I would seek the advice of my trusted friends and associates and I have been busy doing it. But as that goes on there is a flood of mail and the mail generally is of one tenor only.* I am--after all, a person, no matter how many political enemies he has, does also have lots of friends and it is--they believe in him and they are very anxious to express their views."

Towards the end of the 77th press conference a reporter asked: "Mr. President, has any date been set for this medical examination?" The President laughed. "Thank you for asking that question," he replied. "I came over here from my office this morning and knew there was something I had forgotten to do." He turned around to an aide: "You remember that!" He turned back to the reporter: "No, there hasn't!"

At 10:57 the traditional cry went up, "Thank you, Mr. President," and the conference was over. "Nice to have you back," one reporter called out as the President, a remarkably poised and unflustered heart patient, strolled jauntily out of the room. Ike turned and smiled. "Nice to be back," he said.

* The tenor: run again.

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