Eisenhower Reflects on Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, and His Frustrations with Congress in a Personal Letter to Edward “Swede” Hazlett (1957)

Date: July 22, 1957

Created By: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, Civil Rights, The Cold War, Elections and Politics

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: Swede Hazlett Papers, Box 2, 1957 July 22; NAID #12171154

In this personal July 22, 1957 letter to longtime friend Edward “Swede” Hazlett, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offers unusually candid reflections on several major issues confronting his administration. Eisenhower expresses frustration with members of Congress whom he believed placed reelection and local political interests above the nation’s long-term needs. He defends foreign aid and mutual security programs as essential to strengthening American alliances, expanding overseas markets, and containing Communism, arguing that American security depended upon cooperation with other nations rather than isolationism.

Eisenhower then turns to civil rights and school desegregation, discussing the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision overturning school segregation. He argues that decades of legally sanctioned segregation could not be reversed immediately, but insists that Americans must respect the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s authority. He supports a gradual but effective approach combining legal requirements with education to achieve integration. The letter concludes with Eisenhower’s concerns about inflation and federal spending, including criticism of congressional decisions he believed were motivated by electoral politics. The document provides a revealing glimpse into Eisenhower’s private thinking about Cold War foreign policy, civil rights, constitutional government, economic policy, and the political pressures of the presidency.