Eisenhower and ending the Korean War:
(taped conversation between Lyndon Johnson and senator Everett Dirksen Feb. 17, 1965): “[Eisenhower] thinks we are in there [Vietnam] a long time. He said we had a long time in Korea … When he came in as President, they had been negotiating in Korea for a year and a half. But we had agreed there that we wouldn’t cross a certain area. And we had agreed there that we would use only a small type of weapon. And he said that they knew that if we didn’t go across a certain area, and if we would only use a small type of weapon, that we never could have any settlement because we’d tied our hands. […] So he said the first thing he did was call up Nehru [Actually this message was transmitted by Secretary of State Dulles during a May 22, 1953 talk with Indian Prime Minister Nehru] because he knew Nehru was a leak. He told Nehru that … if [the North Koreans] didn’t settle … he wasn’t going to be bound by any sanctuaries … and he wasn’t going to be bound by any weapons. He said, “We made a hell of a lot of weapons. We spent a lot of money on them. What the hell we make them for if we don’t ever use them if we have to?” He said he never intended to do anything except let that get back to them … Then they came in wanting to negotiate with him!” (Michael Beschloss, Reaching for Glory [New York 2001], p. 182-183)