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Document 84612

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Eisenhower to Strauss concerning the Senate's rejection of his nomination as Secretary of Commerce.
TLS: "D.E.", 1p, 8x10¾. Palm Desert, California, 1961 April 3. To Lewis L. Strauss, Washington, D.C. In full: "Your chapter on the Dixon-Yates episode is extremely valuable to me and is exactly what I need. If you have a copy available of the material dealing with the Senate rejection of your confirmation, I should very much like to have it. Both chapters, needless to say, will be kept confidential. Mamie and I now have plans to return to Gettysburg on the seventeenth. It is my sincere hope that we can get together for a visit soon thereafter." At the time this letter was written, just two and a half months after he left the presidency, Eisenhower was already working on his memoirs. On November 13, 1958, Admiral LEWIS L. STRAUSS had been appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Eisenhower. On June 27, 1959, by a vote of 49-46, the U.S. Senate refused to confirm Strauss as Secretary of Commerce, the first Cabinet nominee since 1925 to be rejected by the Senate. There was opposition to his appointment because of Strauss' role as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Specifically, in June 1954, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Los Alamos laboratory for atomic research during World War II, was denied security clearance by the Atomic Energy Commission. There were Senators who voted against Strauss' nomination for that reason alone. There were other reasons as well. One related to A.E.C. Chairman Strauss' relationship with the Congress. From The White House Years, Waging Peace, 1956-1961, published in 1965 by Dwight D. Eisenhower. In part: "Another leader against Senate confirmation was Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Testifying in the hearings, Kefeauver alleged that the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee had been unable to get a copy of the Dixon-Yates contract until it was published in the 'St. Louis Post-Dispatch' in August of 1955. Rebutting this, Admiral Strauss pointed out that immediately upon the signing of the contract, on November 11, 1954, the commission had forwarded a copy to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. This meant nothing to Senator Anderson [Democrat Clinton Anderson of New Mexico]: 'The one great point,' he declared during the debate, 'is that the contract was not available to the committee until it was printed in the 'St. Louis Post-Dispatch'. That is the essential charge. It is true.' It was not true." Lightly creased at margins. Pencil file notes (unknown hand) at upper left corner. Fine condition.

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