EISENHOWER'S WHITE HOUSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R001001300044-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 14, 2013
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: July 1, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

-313
Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2013/11/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001001300044-2
J11.1F, ngoncy E
?
AL;
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x Agency 3-1
x Agency 6-3 Pero 1 Chas. J.V.Ifurpby
The U.S. has a new kind of President with a
new interpretation of the President's job.
Below, a report on his working methods: a
shunning of operating detail, an unprece-
dented delegation of authority, and a desk
cleared for concentration on the broadest
issues of national policy.
Eisenhower's White House
?
?
by' Charles J. V. Murphy
li told that shortly after his 'inauguration
enbower took a .telephone call from the .Chair-
int Chiefs of Staff, General Omar Bradley,
entagon. As the new occupant of the White
vn the receiver, he remarked to his elecretary
ilderment, "He called rusA President, and
'ad all my life."
ncy has .evoked in Mr. Eisenhower, as it did
Mr. Truman, a searching sense of humility?
tnteci on this privately to friaugis. But the
ins not overawed him as it did his predecessor.
to grave responsibility as the Supreme Corn-
int coalition armies, equipped with cosmopoli-
P in a wide variety of -state affairs, Eisenhower
olf into the presidency vftth a calm assurance
respects is reminiscent of Pranklin D. Roose-
"T.D.R. was always in coiMillpd," says one of
Odes. "So is Ike."
lion is not entirely accurate. 'The habit , of
sins, but tkite habitual exercise of its preroga-
put aside. The skill with which the President
itimself from the superficial implications of his
octd by the virtual disappetrasee of the term
from the commentaries of his critics. This
!tudied psychological divedment 'on Eisen-
tlis staff was instructed, area before the move
131 Commodore to Pennsylvania Avenue, to
linlity to the military idiom or Military 'analo-
ional slip of the tongue *1 still betray a prd-
1,3te into Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2013/11/14: CIA-RDP74-00297R001001300044-2
of Lincoln), only the tidiness of Eisenhower's office suggests
a soldierly past. On the wall opposite the President's desk
is a bright painting of an Alpenhatte on a windy ridge,
which the President admires for the painter's success. in
producing the luminous haze of the high mountains?a trick
that eluded his amateur's resources when he tried tainting
mountain scenes last summer in the Colorado Rockies.
But ridding oneself of the working habits of a lifetime is
quite another matter. There has unmistakably de..ticended
uPOn the White House a formality, an orderliness, and a
quietude reminiscent of SHAEF and SHAPE. Moreover, the
President in his approach to the machinery of government
employs much the same methods that he perfected as the
Supreme Commander. of highly variegated forces. To a
degree unknown. to the presidency since Calvin Coolidge's
Administration, Eisenhower practices decentralization and
delegation of authority. Between him and Our heads of gov-
ernment departments and agencies is a definite understand-
ing established forthrightly in advance: "You have full
authority. I expect you to stand on your own feet. Wgatever .
you decide goes. The White House will (3tay out of Your hair."
It was with such an understanding that the President
delegated to Herbert 'Brownell the heroic task of reorganiz-'
ing the inchoate affairs of the Department of Justice; to
George Humphrey an unqualified charter for management
of fiscal policy; and to Charles E. Wilson the responsibility
for the Pentagon. Eisenhower has accepted their decisions.
The President as an impresario, an all-knowing virtuoso,
governing by lightning riposte at press conferences or swift
?