National Affairs: The Week’s Pause

In a week of strain, work and decision, Dwight Eisenhower paused briefly to make an introspective comment on the most trying job in the world. At graduation ceremonies for local police officers attending the FBI National Academy, Ike described himself as the occupant of a desk “to which come possibly more messengers of fear, more stress of probable disaster and risk, more people who want things that can’t be given. Anyone sitting there who did not believe there is a Power that, after all, does govern the affairs of men, in my opinion would soon be in St. Elizabeths [mental hospital] instead of the White House.”