Eisenhower Library, Jackson papers
No. 120
The President’s Special
Assistant (Jackson) to the Ambassador in Italy
(Luce)
personal
Dear Clare: This will acknowledge both your personal letter of September 71 and the cable through the Department.2
I think the point you raise in your cable is absolutely correct and will try to get the idea introduced into the labyrinth immediately. It’s absolutely fantastic the way we have managed to get ourselves stuck with all the wrong words and images. Being for peace, we continue to use “war” and “warfare” in connection with all our activities, [Page 289] psychological and other; they being for war have monopolized the word “peace”.
As to Trieste, I couldn’t agree with you more. This whole sorry, long-drawn-out, downhill performance is a perfect illustration of routine thinking by a lot of people who will go to any lengths in order to avoid facing up to a problem. It is strictly out of the “let the dust settle” department, in spite of the fact that even a double-yoke egghead should know by now that the dust never settles by itself, but invariably develops into a twister.
Having taken that nasty crack at your Department, I should hasten to add that that is not the attitude of either Foster or Beedle or quite a few others near the top. Certainly it is not the attitude of the President.
Oddly enough, the problem is almost more administrative than political—how to get the sense of intelligent urgency at the top translated into whole-hearted legwork at lower levels. That is one that has not yet been licked.
I know that this rates highest priority and pretty much along the lines you indicate, and I will do everything I possibly can to remind the others of this fact forcefully and frequently. The Trieste question must be settled within the next 90 days.
That wonderful “Estimate” in your June 30 letter is going to be an invaluable ally.3
Love to you, and keep them flying.
Sincerely,
- Document 106.↩
- Not further identified.↩
- Luce’s letter of June 30 was enclosed in Document 106.↩