Dwight D. Eisenhower

Recorded Statement Announcing Farewell as Commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

delivered circa 31 May 1952

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

I'm meeting with you today in response to your invitation that I comment upon the letters released yesterday in Washington concerning my relief from active duty.

Now, in the main, those letters speak for themselves. They outline the accomplishments at SHAPE [Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe] during this past year, which now allow me to ask for this relief. This action is one that, from the very beginning of my assignment, I have anticipated taking as quickly as I deemed it practical.

But there are these points of possible added interest.

My first point is this: It relates to the timing of the submission of my request. During the past month, circumstances of my personal life have changed markedly. At the time of my public announcement of last January, I believe that the political movement, involving my name and undertaken in the United States by certain of my friends, would not necessarily impinge on the duties and responsibilities of my present post. Subsequently, events and their incessant repercussions here have made it evident that I was wrong. These pressures practically compelled me to wait no longer in asking for relief.

I hope that now I shall have full opportunity for finishing up the work here that I have set for myself. It was my desire to withhold announcement of this action until completion yesterday of the command-post exercise participated in by all NATO countries. I wanted to announce my departure personally to more than 200 associates who attended. They have worked effectively and loyally with my headquarters during the past year. Incidentally, that exercise was an important milestone in the development of SHAPE's work.

You correspondents are at least partially aware of the mounting volume of inquiry that has been directed at me during these many months. You have been partially responsible for it. I am grateful to you for your understanding and forbearance during that period.

My second point is this: I have not submitted my resignation from the American Army. I have forwarded a request that I be relieved from my current military assignment and placed on inactive status. If, however, I should, because of the current effort, be nominated this July to political office, I shall promptly submit to the President my resignation as an officer of the Army. From that point on, I would be as free to act and speak as any other citizen without any of the limitations imposed by the tradition of the military establishment.

The time remaining to me here is already scheduled heavily with military tasks. One of the most pleasant personal duties I expect to perform is a farewell visit to a number of the NATO countries. As to personal plans in the early weeks after Mrs. Eisenhower and I return to the States, we have none. I do hope, most sincerely, to attend a ceremony scheduled at my old home in Abilene, Kansas, on June 4. Aside from this, we are eagerly looking forward to a short vacation, if we may be allowed one.

A final point that I must emphasize is this: Personalities and partisan viewpoints come and go in all our countries. But the values we have shaped have been called upon to defend are those that man has struggled towards since history began. The quest for peace and tranquility for all men everywhere is always with us. We must keep it sharply in focus. We must not let this great cooperative work to which our 14 NATO countries have so lately set their hearts and hands falter or perish.

Security, peace, liberty: These are the watchwords by which we live at SHAPE. They represent the aspirations of all men who revere the free institutions of our civilization.

Page Updated: 11/9/25

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