ABSTRACT
President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower summoned the designated leaders ofhis administration to gather at the Hotel Commodore in New York City in early January 1953. After Eisenhower read a draft of his inaugural address, Secretary of Defense-designate Charles Wilson expressed concern that the speech implied that the United States might begin trade in nonstrategic goods with some communist countries. Wilson said this might encourage U.S. allies to expand their trade in strategic items with communist states in Eastern Europe. Moreover, Wilson compared such trade to “selling firearms to the Indians.”1
Eisenhower responded that the West should adopt selective trade controls. Cutting off East European trade flows with the West, he said, would only make those states more dependent on Moscow. This did not convince Wilson. The president-elect closed the discussion by saying, “Charles . . . I am talking common sense.”2
