91. Editorial Note

At his February 25 press conference, President Eisenhower was asked about a Tennessee Valley Authority decision to award a contract for a steam turbine to a British firm, and whether the protests this decision had sparked would cause the United Kingdom “to cut back on its recent liberalization of dollar trade.” The President replied that he felt the United States should continue to support free trade. He also noted that he believed the United States was having trouble competing with other manufacturing countries because its costs were too high. “We cannot,” he stated, “continue to increase these costs and have the kind of foreign trade that will make our own country prosperous.” For text of his statement, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pages 1449–1450.