241. Editorial Note
In remarks at the annual meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on April 27, President Eisenhower spoke of the benefits of military and economic assistance and of the role private industry could play in these efforts. In addition to making private investments abroad and promoting a greater volume of trade, business could create “a better national awareness of the challenge before” the United States and the response it required. “Success,” the President asserted, “demands the force of an informed public opinion to strengthen the instruments of freedom in the free world community.” U.S. business and community leaders were in a unique position to “promote the understanding through which the needed public opinion can be produced.” For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, pages 339–343.
On April 29, the President forwarded copies of the Draper Committee’s preliminary report to Vice President Nixon, in his capacity as President of the Senate, and to Speaker of the House of Representatives Rayburn. In identical covering letters, Eisenhower endorsed the Committee’s findings, stating they confirmed “the imperative need for Congress to authorize and appropriate the full amount requested for both economic and military assistance in the Mutual Security Program for Fiscal Year 1960.” But even if the Congress did appropriate the full [Page 458] sum, he noted, it might be necessary to request additional funds later. Text is ibid., page 356. Regarding the Draper Committee’s preliminary report, see footnote 3, Document 235.