President Dwight Eisenhower Thanks Leader Of National Council Of Churches During The Hungary And Suez Canal Crises: “You May Be Certain That The United States Government Will Continue Its Efforts, Within The United Nations And In Its Relations With Other Governments, To Further The Deep Desire Of The American People That Conditions Of True And Lasting Peace Be Established In The World”

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1890-1969). The Thirty-Fourth President, Eisenhower was an Allied commander in World War II, and ordered the Normandy invasion. He was elected President in 1952 for two terms. TLS. 1 pg. 8” x 10”. November 30, 1956. The White House, Washington. A typed letter signed by “Dwight D Eisenhower” to “Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, D.D.”: “Thank you very much for the telegram you sent recently on behalf of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Your comments on the policy of the United States Government in the Hungarian and Near East crises, with particular reference to the handling of these issues in the United Nations, were heartening ones. These two grave situations have represented an urgent opportunity for the United Nations to marshal the strength of universal moral forces on behalf of the rule of international law and justice. Action taken in the United Nations has eloquently revealed the deep-seated longing among the nations for an establishment and maintenance of peace, and the universal desire that the independence and integrity of nations be maintained and respected. In the forum of the United Nations we must press our search for solutions of these and other problems which confront the community of nations. I am most appreciative of the role of the churches in support of the United Nations and on behalf of those who suffer and are in want as a result of international calamities. You may be certain that the United States Government will continue its efforts, within the United Nations and in its relations with other Governments, to further the deep desire of the American people that conditions of true and lasting peace be established in the world”. President Eisenhower sent this letter to Eugene Blake, the leader of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Blake was a prominent Presbyterian leader who served as President from 1954-1957 and later was a participant in the March on Washington. The NCC is an interdenominational partnership of Christian faith groups in the United States that often spoke forcefully about promoting peace in U.S. foreign policy. The two crises that Eisenhower refers to, both in 1956, were the Hungarian Revolution, which saw the Soviet Union violently invade and suppress Hungary’s new reformist government, and the Suez Canal Crisis, which saw Great Britain, France, and Israel launch a joint operation to retake the Suez Canal after Egypt’s Nasser nationalized it. The actions by Eisenhower and the United Nations in resolving both crises were supported by many, like Blake, but also criticized by many in the U.S. and around the world. This was especially true as Eisenhower and the United Nations sat back while the Soviet Union killed over 6,000 Hungarian soldiers and civilians and displaced over 200,000, which was seen as hypocritical given American action in Korea and Vietnam. Regardless, this letter is an important reminder about the influence the NCC had as a Christian advocacy body and Eisenhower’s role as the leader of the internationalist and institutionalist wing of the Republican Party in the decade after World War II.