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July 7, 1948
DID HARRY BUTCHER GIVE GEN. IKE ONE OP HIS BIGGEST BOOSTS?
by Robert D, Heinl
As national attention once more turns to Gen* Dwight D. Eisenhower in connection with the presidency, a question which appar¬ ently can only be solved by the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia next week, just so there is speculation as to how much the General is indebted to Capt. Harry C. Butcher, his wartime Naval Aide and now successful Pacific Coast b roadcaster, for the affection and popu¬ larity Eisenhower enjoys with the American people.
A guest at a typical Washington dinner recently in which the foremost topic of conversation, of course, was the forthcoming presidential election, the lady to my right, a strong supporter of Mr, Truman, tore into General Eisenhov;er and then, to ray surprise, added something about how "This Capt. Harry Butcher and others General Eisenhower had made" would now be crawling on hands and knees to try to get the General to accept the Democratic nomination,"
It was news to me that General Eisenhov/er "had made" Mr, Butcher as I had gotten the idea that perhaps Butcher had been of great assistance to Eisenhower,
Surely Captain Butcher’s book, "My Three Years VJith Eisen¬ hower" added to the General's prestige. The obvious reply to this would be that Captain Butcher was paid well for the book. It is not known how much the book itself yielded but Captain Butcher received $175,000 from the Saturday Evening Post for the magazine rights in the United States and Canada, the largest amount that publication has ever paid for pre-publication rights for any article, Gen, Eteeinhower made it known that he was not sharing in the profits of the book and hadn’t even seen it before publication.
One writer who in World War I days was pretty close to the White House, however, got the impression that Mr, Butcher may have done far more than to write a book about the General more even than money could pay for, that Harry Butcher may even have had a hand in getting General Eisenhower his big opportunity to command the American forces abroad. Here is how the one who developed this theory reasoned it.
Prior to World War II, v/hen Eisenhower v/as a Major and Mr, Butcher, who later became Washington Vice-President of the Columbia Broadcasting System, was Manager of Columbia's old WJSV (now WTOP), they met in Washington at the home of Sam Pickard, former Federal Radio Commissioner,
Mr. Butcher, in turn, vjas a great friend of Stephen Early, Secretary to President Roosevelt, In this group also was George E, Allen, later of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, friend of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and General Eisenhovirer , acting as adviser to the latter in the current presidential nomination situation.
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