Letter Accepting Resignation of Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury.

[ Released March 31, 1965. Dated March 30, 1965 ]

Dear Doug:

Although I understand your reasons for leaving government service, I accept your resignation, effective at the time you suggested, only with the greatest reluctance.

Every American is in your debt for the outstanding contributions you have made to your country's welfare over the past twelve years--first as Ambassador to France, then as Under Secretary of State and, for the past four years, as a truly notable Secretary of the Treasury.

Under your able leadership, the Treasury Department has been a major force in bringing our economy out of recession into an economic upsurge that only a month from now will become the longest and strongest in the nation's peacetime history. In large part we owe this unparalleled progress to the pioneering economic policies of the past four years which bear the mark of your creative counsel and wise leadership. As Secretary of the Treasury, you bore direct responsibility for the crowning achievement of those policies--the most comprehensive program of income tax reduction and reform in our nation's history.

Yours has been a strong voice for sense and sanity--as well as for innovation--in the nation's monetary affairs. During your tenure, the Treasury accomplished with unexampled skill the difficult task of financing our debt without inflation.

On the international front, it is no small testimony to your ability and foresight that we enjoy today a dollar far stronger than it was three or four years ago, and an international payments system both viable and durable enough to meet the needs of the Free World well into the foreseeable future.

Yours has, indeed, been a most brilliant and distinguished career. As you leave to take a well earned rest, I want you to know that I fully intend to call upon you to serve your country again.

Lady Bird joins me in affectionate best wishes to you and to Phyllis.

Sincerely,

LYNDON B. JOHNSON