January 10, 1951
It has been a very strenuous ten days. Left Kansas City Dec. 26 at a few minutes after ten A.M., arrived in Washington a short time after two P.M. Had quite a reception-State, Defense, Treasury and several other cabinet and prominent people to meet me.
General Eisenhower came to see me Sat. Jan. 6 and spent an hour talking over his duties in Europe. He called me when he left his hotel and I met him at the airport. We reviewed the honor guard together and had pictures by the dozen. I gave him the best send off I could.
Bess, Margie and Mrs. Wallace came in at 7:30 A.M. Sat. Jan. 6.
Bess went to N.Y. yesterday, 9th, to go to a show with Margie.
Friday night, Jan. 5th, I went to the Gayety to see Edw. Arnold in the "Apple of his Eye." A great show.
Monday the 8th I went to Congress and gave them all I could in the Message on the State of the Union. Apparently it was all right. Telegrams and letters are running 15 to 1 favorably. Never worked so hard on a speech. All say it showed effort. Hope it does some good.
Received the Woodrow Wilson Award today. A wonderful medal with a grand citation on the back. Mrs. McAdoo, Mr. Sayre and other highest of the high hats present. It was quite a ceremony. Didn't deserve it but that's the case in most awards. But not in those Congressional Medals of Honor I awarded yesterday to the survivors of five Korean heroes. Hope I'll not have to do that again. I'm a damned sentimentalist and I could hardly hold my voice steady when I gave a medal to a widow or a father for heroism in action.
It was similar to giving citations to the men who were shot protecting me at the Blair House-and I choked up just as I did then. What an old fool I am!