[TEXICAN II]

I grow ill when idiots slander & insult Eisenhower-a dullard, slow, ineffectual, do-nothing, etc. He spent countless years in genuine public service-to & for all humanity. Much of our success in two wars was his & our very survival in the Cold War was based on his actions and executive planning. He was a truely great man. You are so kind to inform us he was also reading one of the most relevant texts for our age. Thanks for this wonderful post.

[parsifal]

From the March 19, 1956 New York Times clipping that was in my book(I can't post the whole thing or the NOGOODBAST*ARDS at NYT will sue FR!):

The President's well-known addiction to paper-backed Western stories has overshadowed information about his literary and philosophical interests...The President, however for years has been urgiong friends and Cabinet members to read a five-year old book, "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer, a highly literate longshoreman. A stack of copies of this book is always on a table behind the desk of Charles E. Wilson inthe Pentagon. The Secretary of Defense, taking his cue from the President, is continully passing them out to visitors and fellow officials. ...

Members of the President's staff have long been familiar with his interest in the book, too. The title suggests a religious theme. But the subtitle, "Thoughts in the Nature of Mass Movements," gives a better idea of what is really a coldly analytical study of fanaticism, in the mass and in the individual, and how it has affected religious and political movements throughout history.