Editorial Note
On October 23, 1954, President Eisenhower addressed a letter to Captain E. E. Hazlett, Jr., USN (ret.), a personal friend with whom he corresponded frequently. The President’s letter, responding to a recent communication from Hazlett, dealt with a wide variety of issues and contained the following paragraph concerning Indochina:
“You are somewhat wrong in your statement, ‘I know that at one time you contemplated some really drastic action in Indo-China.’ What I really attempted to do was to get established in that region the conditions [Page 2168] under which I felt the United States could properly intervene to protect its own interests. A proper political foundation for any military action was essential. Since we could not bring it about (though we prodded and argued for almost two years), I gave not even a tentative approval to any plan for massive intervention.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman file, Name Series, Hazlett)