The President's News Conference

THE PRESIDENT. Please be seated.

[1.] I want you to understand that the election is over, that we are trying to get things in shape to make an orderly turnover of the Government to the successor, and that we want to let the world know that this country is a unified organization in its policy toward the rest of the world.

I was very happy to see that General Eisenhower had told Senator Wiley that he was with the policy on the prisoners of war in Korea. That was one of the main things about which we talked at the meeting the other day when he was down here.

Now I will answer questions if I can.

Q. Mr. President, could we quote the first part of that statement.

THE PRESIDENT. Yes.

Q.--starting with "I want you to understand that the election is over" until "we talked about." Could we quote that directly?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, that's all right.

Q. Stop at what point, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, I don't care. You can stop anywhere you please. [Laughter]

Q. Down to one of the things that you talked about at the meeting ?

Q. Let's quote the whole thing then, Mr. President; it is very brief.

THE PRESIDENT. That's all right, if you want to.

Q. It "keys" in with the Tuesday meeting ?

THE PRESIDENT. The Tuesday meeting. Also "keys" in with the statement I made after I got back to the house.¹

¹ See Item 331.

[2.] Q. Mr. President, will you meet with General Eisenhower again before January 20th ?

THE PRESIDENT. If he desires it, yes.

Q. I didn't hear the answer, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. If he wants to meet with me, I will be glad to see him any time.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, there was some tendency, I noticed, in the New York paper this morning, to say that General Eisenhower had agreed only with the principle against forced repatriation, but that Senator Wiley had been unwilling to go all the way and say he is just against the thing entirely. It might be merely a matter of semantics--I don't know, sir--but I say that was the point I was thinking about.

THE PRESIDENT. I am not going into semantics at all. I am going by the headlines. That is what you all go by. [Laughter]

[4.] Q. Mr. President, will you meet with Governor Stevenson ?

THE PRESIDENT. If he desires it, yes.

Q. Mr. President, there was a--I forgot where I saw it--published report somewhere, that Governor Stevenson was to see you. It seems to me a definite date was arranged to see you December 1st.

THE PRESIDENT. Sometime in that neighborhood. I think he is coming to Washington, and I will see him when he comes here.

Q. Mr. President, do you regard Governor Stevenson as the head of the Democratic Party until the next nomination ?

THE PRESIDENT. Did you read my telegram to Governor Stevenson ? If you haven't read it, you will find that I do.

Q. Mr. President, will you ask Mr. Stevenson to make a change in the chairman of the Democratic National Committee ?

THE PRESIDENT. I will ask him nothing.

Q. I see.

THE PRESIDENT. Except that I will tell him I will cooperate with him in reorganizing the Democratic Party.

[5.] Q. Mr. President, could we go back to Korea? When General Eisenhower was here, did you raise with him the question of prisoners of war--any course of action ?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. Yes. Of course the question was raised.

Q. Could you tell---

THE PRESIDENT. No, I can't tell you a thing except what was in the communique.

[6.] Q. Mr. President, is it too early to discuss your own plans after January 20th?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, it is--very much too early. [Laughter] On the 21st day of January, I will tell you what I am going to do.

Q. I had special reference with regard to your relationship to the Democratic Party organization ?

THE PRESIDENT. I will be a Democrat all the rest of my life, and I think I will have some influence with the Democratic Party.

Q. The second part of that question was, whether you are going to teach--or write---

THE PRESIDENT. I can't answer that, because I don't know. I don't know. For awhile I am not going to do a darn thing but just do as I please--and sit down and do nothing. [Laughter]

Q. Are you going to keep an office or apartment in Washington ?

THE PRESIDENT. No. No.

[7.] Q. Mr. President, can you give any description of what kind of transitional arrangements you have in mind for the--

THE PRESIDENT. I don't understand the question. There is no kind of transitional arrangement except to turn the Government over as a going concern to the successor. That's all there is to it.

Q. What I had in mind, sir, was the fact that in the communique which was issued, toward the end of the first agreement on arrangements--or some phrase like that--I assume---.

THE PRESIDENT. It will just be an orderly turnover, which has never been done before. I am establishing a precedent.

Q. Yes, sir--I understood that was true.

THE PRESIDENT. That's all there is to it.

Q. What I was going to ask was what details we might have---,

THE PRESIDENT. I can't give you any details.

Q. Mr. President, were the domestic affairs discussed at your meeting with the General?

THE PRESIDENT. No.

Q. Did the budget come up?

THE PRESIDENT. The budget has been under scrutiny by Mr. Dodge² for the last week.

² Joseph M. Dodge had been named by president elect Eisenhower to represent him as budget liaison officer at the Bureau of the Budget.

Q. It was not discussed ?

THE PRESIDENT. Not discussed. The budget I shall turn in will be a regular budget, just the same as if I were going to continue to be President. It will be a good, tight budget. It will be an honest budget, just as I have always turned in; and they have been fighting with that budget ever since I have been President, and they have never been able to do very much to it, after I get through with it.

[8.] Q. We understand that the Tuesday conference was devoted altogether to foreign relations?

THE PRESIDENT. I wouldn't say altogether, principally.

[9.] Q. Mr. President, if we may look back a little bit, would you, if you had to do it over again, would you call it police action in Korea ?

THE PRESIDENT. I sure would. And it still is. Police action for the United Nations-to stop aggression--and nothing else.

Q. Mr. President, is that--there has been no declaration of war?

THE PRESIDENT. None whatever.

Q. As you know, sir, this expression has been challenged.

THE PRESIDENT. I agree with that, but I still stand by it. I don't care who challenges it. Let history decide that. That was a political proposition--purely.

[10.] Q. Mr. President, Congressman Gross³--I believe his name is--has objected to---says that he has objected, to the White House, to Oscar Ewing's⁴ trip to Europe and to India. Have you any comment on that?

THE PRESIDENT. None whatever. It is none of his business. [Laughter]

³Representative H. R. Gross of Iowa.

⁴Oscar R. Ewing, Federal Security Administrator.

[11.] Q. Mr. President, Congressman John Taber said the other day that he was worried about the Democrats burning files. Have you heard of any Democrats burning files?

THE PRESIDENT. Never heard of it. And I don't think John has, either. He is just talking on his suspicions. That is the usual thing in a turnover. For his information, when files become 5 years old, they usually are destroyed and burned, but files of any use are not ever destroyed.

Q. Well, Mr. President, don't you have to--isn't there a committee that decides upon the destruction of files ?

THE PRESIDENT. The President decides what he will do with his own files.⁵

Q. And Congress passes.--

THE PRESIDENT. And so do the executive departments.

⁵On January 8, 1953, the White House announced that the Board of Trustees of the Harry S. Truman Library, Inc., would meet on that day to further develop plans for the fund-raising campaign for the library and research center to be built at Grandview, Mo., as a depository for the papers of President Truman.

The release stated that at a dinner to be attended on the same day by approximately 70 trustees and other interested persons from all over the country, the President was expected to informally explain his conception of the library and its future role as a center of study for the postwar years. The release noted the President's wish that the building with his Presidential papers be given to the United States Government.

Q. But I thought there was a committee that passed---

THE PRESIDENT. They have their own conditions down there. They can do as they please with their files. But there is a law, I think, that says they may be destroyed after 5 years, if they are of no use. I think there are some burned nearly every day.

[12.] Q. Mr. President, how do you feel about some of your appointments in the executive branches resigning? We have a District Commissioner in Washington who says he is a great American and he is not going to submit his resignation ?

THE PRESIDENT. That is up to the people themselves. I have no ideas on the subject at all.

Q. Didn't hear the question ?

THE PRESIDENT. She asked me if I had any ideas about people resigning. I haven't. They are their own bosses.

[13.] Q. Mr. President, are you going to tell us what you think were the major factors in the Republican victory this year?

THE PRESIDENT. NO. Its a little too soon to tell you that.

Q. Too soon?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I may tell you a little later on. Say in about 6 months. [Laughter]

[14.] Q. Mr. President, did you take up with General Eisenhower the state of affairs in Europe, and particularly the relations between the French and the German---

THE PRESIDENT. I did not.

[15.] Q. Mr. President, about this time in every administration, the question comes up as to the right of individuals to remove from files in Washington certain papers that they may have written or received during their periods--

THE PRESIDENT. Have you studied the precedents on that?

Q. I understand.--

THE PRESIDENT. I say, have you studied the precedents on it? I am asking you a question.

Q. I have read some of it---

THE PRESIDENT. Well, you had better study the precedents; and you will find out--you will get the answer to your question.

Q. I was wondering, sir, whether you were thinking at all of laying down any suggestions---

THE PRESIDENT. No, I am not.

What's the matter, have you got another question?

Q. Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. Fire away.

Q. We face the fact that people are always taking files away from here. General MacArthur took them. Now you have just taken them back. We are wondering what the precedent was there for his taking them, or of the Army taking them back

THE PRESIDENT. Those files belong to the Government. He did not take any files. There was just the matter of their storage was what the difficulty was.

Q. Did he consent?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I didn't ask him. [Laughter]

[16.] Q. Mr. President, can you say whether you discussed the Iranian problem with General Eisenhower ?

THE PRESIDENT. It was discussed.

[17.] Q. Senator Taft said something yesterday to the effect that he thought that the Republicans would look forward to balancing the budget this year, with prospects of a tax reduction in the spring of 1954-fiscal 1954-55. What do you think of that timetable?

THE PRESIDENT. I will let Taft study the budget, then make up his mind. He hasn't seen it yet. [Laughter]

Q. Senator Taft said in New York that he thought you had submitted a budget much smaller than 85 billion.

THE PRESIDENT. Senator Taft doesn't know anything about what is going to be in the budget, and when it comes time to submit that budget, I am going to have a budget seminar as usual,⁶ and all you boys will know all about it, if you want to find out about it--as you usually do.

⁶The President's news conference on the budget, held January 8, 1953, was not transcribed and is therefore not included in this volume.

[18.] Q. Mr. President, would you tell us what you and Senator Connally discussed recently during his visit ?

THE PRESIDENT. No, I won't. [Laughter]

[19.] Q. Mr. President, do you anticipate, as a result of your meeting with General Eisenhower, that he will appoint additional people to come to Washington.

THE PRESIDENT. I hope he will.

Q. Will they be of Cabinet rank?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope they will. I can only express a hope. I don't know what he is going to do. You ask him. He will answer for himself, I am sure.

Q. Have we overlooked anything, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, if you have, I don't know what it could be.

Reporter: Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. It's all right. [Laughter]