Description:

Extraordinary letter! Eisenhower writes about the failed Bay of Pigs invasion during the Kennedy presidency. Ike had allocated $13.1 million to the CIA just a year before - "I said that the American people were disturbed by the 'seeming indecision and uncertainty that characterized governmental action in Cuba' ... To top it all - I have a clipping of a Goldwater column that refers to the 'inept Eisenhower Administration in Cuba' affair - Who is he to be such a genius??"

Typed Letter Signed "Ike" with thirty-one word handwritten postscript incorporating "Eisenhower" signed "DE," two full pages, 7" x 10.25", separate sheets. Gettysburg, PA, September 29, 1961. To Major General Wilton B. Persons, his White House Chief of Staff (1958-1961). On Ike's "DDE" gilt engraved stationery. Fine condition.

In part, "As you know, I thoroughly believe that when we face specific foreign problems or the government enunciates a specific policy involving our foreign activities, all of us owe it to ourselves as well as to the government to stand unanimously behind the President. On the other hand, I by no means believe that we should ignore our own right -- indeed, duty -- to look at past events with an impartial eye and try to keep the record straight.

"In my Chicago speech I said that the American people were disturbed by the 'seeming indecision and uncertainty that characterized governmental action in Cuba.' I used the word 'seeming' because I was not there. However, the detailed account given by Charlie Murphy in a recent issue of Fortune magazine has all the earmarks of authenticity, and since the government itself did not choose to give a detailed account of the whole affair even though it has now passed into history, I think we must consider it about as good a record as we are going to get. Nevertheless Bryce [Harlow] tells me that the White House did not like my language and had been putting the story out to certain reporters that I had 'gone partisan in foreign affairs ...'

Eisenhower adds a handwritten postscript: "P.S. To top it all - I have a clipping of a Goldwater column that refers to the 'inept Eisenhower Administration in Cuba' affair- Who is he to be such a genius?? DE"

The letter can be read in its entirety in the images above.

A photocopy of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater's syndicated September 24, 1961, column is present. It includes this sentence: "The inept handling of the Cuban situation by the Eisenhower administration and the tragic indecision of the Kennedy administration have encouraged our enemies to test our will once more in Berlin."

The failed Bay of Pigs invasion

From the JFK Library: "Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland ... President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960. The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army for an assault landing and guerilla warfare ... Shortly after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized the invasion plan ... On April 17, the Cuban-exile invasion force ... landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire ... Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered roughly 20,000 troops to advance toward the beach, and the Cuban air force continued to control the skies ... at dawn on April 19_six unmarked American fighter planes took off to help defend the brigade's B-26 aircraft flying ... They were shot down by the Cubans, and the invasion was crushed later that day ... "

Provenance

Major General Wilton Burton "Jerry" Persons (1896-1977) served as the White House Chief of Staff to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from October 7, 1958 until January 20, 1961 and was Eisenhower's representative in the transition of government between the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.

He was a career United States Army officer who had entered the U.S. Army Coast Artillery in 1917 and advanced through the ranks to Major General in 1944. He had served in both the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and in Europe in World War II. He headed the office of legislative liaison for the Department of Defense between 1948 and his retirement in 1949.

Major General Persons was called back to active duty as a special assistant to General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe from 1951_1952 and was active on behalf of Eisenhower's presidential campaign in 1952. He became a Deputy Assistant to the President in 1953 and replaced Sherman Adams as Eisenhower's Chief of Staff in 1958.

Following the 1960 presidential election, Major General Persons was President Eisenhower's representative in the transition of government between the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations working out the details for a smooth transfer of government.

From the Estate of Major General Wilton B. Persons.

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