Address: Gettysburg

Just three weeks and one day after he entered Walter Reed Hospital, Dwight Eisenhower once again stepped back onto solid, ground-level pavement. His face and neck were noticeably thin; at 163 Ibs., he had gained back just one of the seven pounds he lost after his ileitis operation. His brown summer-weight suit now fitted a little loosely, his West Point-squared shoulders looked lean. With Mamie on his arm to lend balance, the President carefully took the five steps down from the hospital exit, mustered up one of his fine smiles and a wave for the battery of photographers. Then he slipped gratefully into Mamie's black Chrysler Crown Imperial, and sagged back against a white pillow. In a moment his Secret Service driver wheeled the car out into Washington traffic, led the cavalcade of Secret Service men, photographers and reporters north through the Maryland countryside.

Prescription: Rest. Two hours and 85 miles later, the Chrysler pulled up at the Eisenhower farm at Gettysburg, Pa., to be greeted by Mamie's mother, Mrs. Elivera Doud. The farm looked sunny, warm, restful. Wild roses, day lilies and hollyhocks were abloom; the corn was knee-high. Tired from the trip, Ike lay down to rest in his oak-paneled, first-floor den. In a short while the Eisenhowers and their weekend guests, Walter Reed Hospital Commander Major General Leonard Heaton (who performed the ileitis operation) and Mrs. Heaton, were all soaking up an afternoon nap. A double celebration was in order for the weekend: it was the Eisenhowers' 40th wedding anniversary, the Heatons' 30th. For at least the next two weeks, Ike would receive White House officials on pressing business, but beyond that, the prescription was "Rest.''

Though he had rested well in his final week at the hospital, the President had slowly taken on some of his old work load. One piece of business that demanded decision was the approaching visit (on July 7) of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. An Indian emissary had informed the White House that Nehru fully expected to talk out with the President a vast variety of global subjects, e.g., the Communist new look, the admission of Red China to the United Nations. Nehru had further made it clear that he was not interested in seeing Ike only for a brief visit, as did West Germany's Konrad Adenauer. On this basis top White House officials decided that Nehru's proposed program would call for too many extended presidential briefings, too many long sessions, asked for a postponement. Graciously, Nehru took the official initiative requesting postponement. Ike gratefully accepted it.

Faces at the Window. As his hospital-discharge date neared, Ike improved sufficiently for his doctors to resume the anticoagulant therapy required by his heart condition (to retard blood clotting), and also for Press Secretary James Hagerty to announce that Ike would be on hand for the meeting of the heads of state of the American Republics at Panama on July 21 and 22. The President's improvement rate shot up even farther when the U.S. Army Band gathered outside his window one evening, serenaded him with a program of his favorite songs and marches (Beer Barrel Polka, The Caissons Go Rolling Along, selections from Oklahoma!). Suddenly, in the middle of the old West Point Army Blue, Ike and Mamie both appeared at the ivy-framed hospital window to wave and smile, while photographers scrambled to aim their telephoto lenses for the first picture of the convalescing President. If, during his stay at the hospital, Ike was mulling the question of running again, he made no announcement. But the "big bellyache" and the old heart trouble notwithstanding, his place in the political picture seemed as sharply in focus as ever. Gallup reported from a post-operative poll that 67% of those polled wanted Ike to be a candidate (against 61% post-heart attack last February). More politically important than the predictable majority of Republicans (92%) or even the hefty number of Democrats (45%), said Gallup, was the fact that 71% of the independents ("who hold the balance of power in all U.S. elections") favored Ike's candidacy.

Conducting business from his hospital bed, the President also:

P: Signed 51 bills, including the federal highway bill (see below).

P: Received Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson, who was due for a rough session before the Senate air power subcommittee, told him to present the full story of America's defense posture -to "lay it on the line."

P: Prepared personal messages for Philippine President Magsaysay and Viet Nam President Diem, to be delivered by Vice President Nixon this month on his Asian trip.

P: Approved a recommendation by the National Security Council that the U.S. should seek exchanges with "the countries of Eastern Europe, including the U.S.S.R., along the lines of the 17-point program put forward by the Western foreign ministers at Geneva in October."

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