Channels, Fall 2020

Channels • 20 20 • Volume 5 • Number 1 Page 55 himself was a prolific author, writing several autobiographies, memoirs, and of course, his personal diaries. In addition to his first-person works, historians can consult the memoirs of various family members and close colleagues who have also written on their time and experiences with Ike. Lastly, there are the countless papers of his administration, which contain notes, letters, memorandums, official documents, speech transcripts, and much more. Historians wishing to acquaint themselves with Dwight David Eisenhower are not lacking in source material with which to do so. The largest and most notable resource an aspiring Eisenhower scholar should first review are The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower. It is a 21-volume set of books in which dedicated historians chronologically collated “the most significant letters, memoranda, cables, and directives written or dictated by Eisenhower from the years prior to World War II th rough the full term of his presidency.” 55 This set consists of well over 14,000 pages, and includes many documents which were previously classified but have since been released for public perusal. It is an impressive work and a historian’s dream come true in terms of source material. Volumes XIV- XXI cover Eisenhower’s presidency, and the documents within portray Eisenhower as very practically involved and invested in his leadership of the nation. The editors kindly provide notations and introductions before each document, so as to orient the reader to the reason it was written, the person to whom it was directed, and the context behind it . The volumes detail his correspondence and interaction with the heads of other countries, such as King ibn Abd al-Aziz Saud of Saudi Arabia and David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, his directives to colleagues such as Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and White House Chief of Staff Sherman Adams, and the notes he wrote pertaining to personal affairs, such as checking up on Mamie while abroad. 56 The editors of these volumes make an effort to only include the documents authored by Eisenhower himself and not every slip of paper that ever proceeded from the Oval Office with his signature on it. As could be rightfully assumed, among the thousands and thousands of pages of the Papers exist thousands and thousands of excerpts demonstrating how involved Eisenhower was. From his direction to John Foster Dulles to delete a specific sentence in one of Dulles’ letters, to cabling British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan to request an immediate meeting to “hear first -hand your impressions from your trip to the Soviet Union and to discuss what we must do on important issues in the coming months,” Eisenhower 55 Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, edited by Louis Galambos, 21 vols (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1970-2001). 56 Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The Presidency – Keeping the Peace, Volume XVIII, ed. Louis Galambos and Daun Van Ee (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001).