"I Would Like Him to See . . ."

The half block between the Gettysburg Hotel and the old gymnasium, which had been converted into an auditorium, was lined with people--women in shorts, men with straw hats, kids with sunburned faces. Between them, smiling to their applause, moved the President of the U.S., on his way to the auditorium for his weekly press conference. Uppermost in Ike's mind: the forthcoming visit to the U.S. of Russia's Nikita Khrushchev. Said the President to the 95 newsmen at the press conference: "I would hope for a bettering of the atmosphere between the East and the West ... I am trying to do my best to see whether we can't bring about a somewhat better situation in the relations between the two, and maybe he can learn a little bit more about our country, as certainly I can about his."

President Eisenhower was asked what he particularly wanted Khrushchev to see in the U.S. The answer gave insight into Ike himself. Items:

P: "I would like him to see Levittown [Pa.], the town surrounding the Fairless plant, and see this town universally and exclusively inhabited by its workmen, and to see what those homes are.

P:"I would like to see him have to fly along in my chopper and just make a circuit of the District [of Columbia], and to see the uncountable homes that have been built all around, modest but decent, fine comfortable homes.

P:"I would like to see him go into our great farmland and see our farmers, each one operating on his own, not regimented.

P:"I would like to see him go in the little town where I was reared [Abilene, Kans.] and pick up the evidence--and of course there are some still alive [who remember] when I was there, you know--and let them tell him the story of how hard I worked . . . He said in one of his conversations to Mr. Nixon: 'What do you know about work? You never worked.' Well, I can show him the evidence that I did.

P: "I want him to see our great industrial plants and what we are doing. I want him to see a happy people. I want him to see a free people, doing exactly as they choose, within the limits that they must not transgress the rights of others ... I am just telling you what I--the kind of thing I would like to have him see of America."

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