Eisenhower Administration Debates Which Islands Should Be Included in the Proposed State of Hawaii (1953)

Date: April 27, 1953

Created By: Roger Jones

Original or Replica: Original

Era: Alaska & Hawaii Statehood, The Presidency

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 632, OF-147-E-1 Hawaiian Statehood(1); NAID #16606985

This April 27, 1953 Bureau of the Budget memorandum to White House official Bernard M. Shanley addresses an important territorial question surrounding proposed legislation for Hawaiian statehood. The Senate Interior Committee had asked the Eisenhower administration to determine exactly which islands should be included within the boundaries of the future state before the committee completed its statehood bill. The memorandum summarizes differing recommendations from the Departments of the Interior and Defense and asks for a presidential decision.

Both departments agreed that Hawaii’s eight principal islands should be included, along with the Leeward Islands extending through French Frigate Shoal. They also agreed that several more distant islands—including Midway, Johnston Island, Sand Island, and Kingman Reef—should remain outside the new state. The principal disagreement concerned Palmyra Island and the Leeward Islands beyond French Frigate Shoal. The Interior Department favored including these territories because they had traditionally been considered part of Hawaii and saw no compelling national-security reason to exclude them. Defense, however, recommended excluding them, although the memorandum notes that it provided no specific justification for doing so.

The memorandum recommends that President Dwight D. Eisenhower support the Interior Department’s position, while suggesting that the issue could first be discussed with the National Security Council. A handwritten addition dated April 29 records that the Navy had no objection to accepting Interior’s position if the president approved it, and that Interior had been advised accordingly.

The document provides a valuable behind-the-scenes look at the territorial and national-security questions involved in defining the boundaries of a future State of Hawaii, demonstrating that statehood required federal officials to determine not only whether Hawaii should become a state, but precisely which Pacific islands would be included within it.