Letter to Joao Carlos Muniz, President of the Conference on the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

[Released October 26, 1956. Dated October 23, 1956]

Your Excellency:

I beg to acknowledge your gracious invitation to address the closing session of the Conference on the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency on October the twenty-sixth.

This invitation has been a source of gratification to me personally and to the people of the United States. It had been my earnest hope to appear at this historic Conference, at which the largest number of nations in history are met together. But it is now clear that the special circumstances of my present life--which add inescapable political engagements to my official duties,--oblige me to deny myself the honor and privilege of accepting your great courtesy. It will be necessary for me to be present in Washington on Friday of this week.

May I hope, Mr. President, that you will express my sincere regrets to the assembled Delegates, and transmit to them some considerations which I had wished to present in person at the Conference's concluding session and which I am enclosing with this letter.

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER