48. Letter From the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Humphrey) to President Nixon1
You will recall that the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars was established by Act of Congress last year to be “a living institution expressing the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson . . . symbolizing and strengthening the fruitful relation between the world of learning and the world of public affairs.”2
Congress placed the Center in the Smithsonian Institution under the administration of its own Board of Trustees who were appointed subsequently by President Johnson and yourself as listed below. I was designated Chairman of the Board.
Your own message to Congress on District of Columbia affairs last April gave us a strong start by declaring that “an international center for scholars to be established as a living memorial to Woodrow Wilson . . . could hardly be a more appropriate memorial to a President who combined a devotion to scholarship with a passion for peace. The [Page 105] District has long sought, and long needed, a center for both men of letters and men of affairs.3
Because of the generalized nature of the statute creating the Center and its legislative history, the Board and its staff spent seven months in extensive correspondence and discussions to determine the needs of scholars visiting the District and how best to fulfill a unique and useful public purpose within the broad goals of the presidential memorial institution framework. I personally devoted considerable time to this effort in correspondence and in discussions here and abroad. I think we have obtained substantial Congressional support.
At our Board meeting last month, at which Secretaries Rogers and Finch were ably represented, the Trustees approved the opening in October of 1970 of new international fellowship and guest scholar programs in prime space which has been offered to the Center in the newly renovated original Smithsonian Institution building. Those programs and plans are described in the attached brochure, which includes the above quote from your April message to Congress.4 The brochure has been mailed to a large number of institutions and individuals in this country and elsewhere.
I think the fellowship program we have designed [is] unique and desirable in scope and purpose. When the program is fully operational, up to forty distinguished scholars—approximately half from the United States and half from other countries—will be selected to work and study here for periods ranging from a few weeks to several years. They will be chosen—again in approximately equal measure—from many traditional academic disciplines and from a variety of non-academic occupations and professions such as government, law, business, journalism, etc.
The theme of the program is designed to accentuate those aspects of Wilson’s ideals and concerns for which he is perhaps best remembered a half century after his presidency—his search for international peace and the imaginative new governmental approaches he used to meet pressing issues of his day. We are determined to concentrate our efforts here on studies of some of the big issues of our times which are simply [Page 106] not getting the attention they deserve in governments or in the institutions of higher education.
For these purposes we have submitted a modest and carefully reviewed budget estimate for fiscal year 1971 totalling $900,000, including $400,000 for equipping the Center and administrative support and $500,000 to finance twenty fellowships. We have set our sights on raising from private sources at least another $500,000 to finance the other twenty fellows, and if we do better than that we will be able to reduce the federal sums requested for this purpose accordingly. We are setting up a bipartisan outside advisory committee to assist us in this development effort.
We were advised today of the tentative decision of the Bureau of the Budget to provide no funds for the Center in the coming fiscal year and informed that this issue would be presented to you in a few days. I do not know the Bureau’s reasoning, and obviously there is no point in my addressing this issue in terms of dollars and cents.
Mr. President, I am convinced that we have laid the groundwork here to create something of significant national and international import which will have value in terms of cultural exchanges and education, and, most importantly, in new approaches to some of the staggering problems confronting all advanced societies today. I ask your support in reinstating the original budget request submitted by the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center.
Sincerely,
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 409, Subject Files, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Vol. II [Nov 69–Jan 70]. No classification marking. Read sent a copy of the letter and a subsequent letter from Humphrey to the President, dated December 17, to Kissinger under a December 19 note, stating that the letters would inform Kissinger of Read’s and Humphrey’s “efforts to bring Woodrow Wilson to life in the attic of the Smithsonian!” (Ibid.) Kissinger sent the copies of the letters to Cole under an undated memorandum indicating that he had received the copies from Read, who had informed Kissinger that the Bureau of the Budget had not assigned an appropriation to the Center for FY 1971. Kissinger added, “I continue to believe that the FY 1971 budget should include some provision for assistance to the Center.” (Ibid.) On a December 29 typewritten note, Kissinger wrote: “Already approved by Pres. I believe. Please check if not let me call or write Ben Read.” (Ibid.) On a January 12, 1970, typewritten note, Kissinger indicated that the Center would receive “$100,000” from the “Humanities Foundation.” (Ibid.) For the Department of State’s comments on Humphrey’s November 18 letter, see Document 51.↩
- Reference is to P.L. 90–637 (82 Stat. 1356), the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act of 1968, signed into law by President Johnson on October 25, 1968. At the signing ceremony, Johnson commented that the legislation would “establish this monument to a great American President—as a living memorial to one who combined great scholarship, a progressive spirit, and a practical understanding of political life.” (Public Papers: Johnson, 1968–1969, Book II, p. 1070)↩
- In his April 28 special message to the Congress on the District of Columbia, Nixon stated: “One of the most significant additions to Pennsylvania Avenue will be an international center for scholars, to be established as a living memorial to Woodrow Wilson in the area just north of the National Archives. There could hardly be a more appropriate memorial to a President who combined a devotion to scholarship with a passion for peace. The District has long sought, and long needed, a center for both men of letters and men of affairs. This should be, as it was first proposed, ‘an institution of learning that the 22nd Century will regard as having influenced the 21st.’” (Public Papers: Nixon, 1969, p. 332)↩
- Not found attached.↩
- Printed from a copy that indicates Humphrey signed the original.↩