Letter from Secretary of State Dean Acheson to United States Ambassador to France David K. E. Bruce

212 = SERVICE July 26, 1949 PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL Dear Dave: For the past month we have talked incessantly of you and Evangeline and your kindness to us. We have missed you nuch and by no means merely because of the heat and political turmoil of Washington. True enough, it has been unbearably hot, not only at the well-known Kiosk at 14th and Pennsylvania Avenue, but even in the air-conditioned Capitol. Tempers have risen and added to the exasperation of the Members of Congress at de- parture deferred. The ECA legislation has dragged out interminably, with various groups trying to pursue special objectives. The Far Eastern troubles have added to the doubts and perplexities inherent in the production of a Chinese Whits Paper. We have become embroiled in a controversy about atomic energy, where extremists leak and the rest of us, of necessity, cannot defend ourselves. The Military Assistance bill was debated before it was ever introduced or before the debaters knew what they were talking about. And the all-or-nothing boys refuse to do what is possible in Korea, because we will not at- tempt what it impossible in China. All-in-all we have our troubles. But quite apart from all of that we miss the pleasure of being with you and Evangeline. After I returned, I spoke with Jack Peurifoy about the Rothschild property in Paris, telling him how fool- ish I thought it was to toy with any idea of converting The Honorable David K. E. Bruce, American Ambassador, Paris, France.