Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Export-Import Bank of Washington.

February 12, 1959

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I think it is a military crime to be surprised and mystified. I had a date with the Secretary of the Treasury and worked out with your President, Sam Waugh, that I was going to make a quiet, personal call, unknown to anyone except the three of us--I thought. I find here some of my writing friends with their photographers, and throughout the halls I find policemen all over the place. I think everything is entirely safe and in order. But I repeat, I am astonished, and surprised.

I came here--not to keep you people from the work that I know you want to be doing on your 25th birthday--but only to tell you how much we of the administration appreciate what you have done, how proud we are of the record that has been established by this Ex-Im Bank in the last 25 years. I am sure that you are just as proud of that record as any of the rest of us.

I am told, just this afternoon, that some of you are here that were at the first birthday of the Bank 25 years ago. Well, I am sure that it has been a career that has been most satisfying. Because all the way around the country--through Latin America, in other nations--the record of this Bank is for fair dealing, for human understanding, and for acting in a businesslike, canny way--not only for the welfare of the United States but for other nations. Your record of repaid loans and repayable loans, your infinitesimal portion of written-off loans is one that I can do nothing except to say congratulations to your Directors, the President, and to all of you. And of course, I hope that all of you are here for the next 25 years and that I can just be tottering around to hear about the Bank's record.

Note: The President spoke at the Export-Import Bank. His opening words "Mr. President, Mr. Secretary" referred to Samuel C. Waugh, President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, and Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Export-Import Bank of Washington. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235039

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