It was just past midnight in Washington when the Moscow radio announced Joseph Stalin's "sudden brain hemorrhage." Swiftly the all-night monitors of Central Intelligence Agency passed the word to Director Allen Dulles. Thus, key men of the Administration were roused out of bed.
The CIA's chief called brother Foster, the Secretary of State, and then CIA's contact man at the White House, Robert Cutler. From Cutler the report hurried on to C. D. Jackson, the President's assistant in charge of psychological warfare, and to James Hagerty, secretary. On advice of John Foster Dulles, it was decided not to disturb the sleep of President Eisenhower; but a message was prepared for his earliest information. Allen Dulles, Jackson, Cutler and Hagerty agreed to a 7 a.m. meeting in Hagerty's White House office.
Memo at Dawn. By chance that morning, Eisenhower's sleep was restless. Up at 6 a.m., half an hour earlier than usual, he read the memo left for him. The presidential day that followed was crammed with urgent consultation.
The first move was Eisenhower's idea.
With Allen Dulles, Jackson, Cutler and Hagerty standing by, a presidential statement aimed at the Russian people was drafted. Said Eisenhower: "The thoughts of America go out to all the people of the U.S.S.R.—the men and women, the boys and girls—in the villages, cities, farms and factories of their homeland ..."
Then came an appeal to Russia's deep-rooted religious tradition which still persists despite Marx's dictum that religion is "the opium of the people": "[The Russian people] are the children of the same God who is the Father of all peoples everywhere . . . Regardless of the identity of government personalities, the prayer of us Americans continues to be that the Almighty will watch over the people of that vast country and bring them, in His wisdom, opportunity to live their lives in a world where all men and women and children dwell in peace and comradeship."
Before the morning was done, the President talked things over in a meeting with Foster Dulles, held a phone consultation with U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in New York, gathered with the National Security Council for a weighty session that ran for 2½ hours.
Next day presidential aides worked out the message that the U.S. Government would send to Moscow when death came. This was it: "The Government of the U.S. tenders its official condolences to the government of the U.S.S.R. on the death of Generalissimo Joseph Stalin, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union."
Said a White House official later: "Certainly it was chilly. After all, Stalin's gang is shooting at us."