Facing the Post-War World: Everett Dirksen

On February 21, 1945, then Congressman Dirksen set out on a world trip that would take him to twenty-one countries, logging 32,000 miles. This was not an ordinary junket. Dirksen traveled on behalf of the House Committee on Appropriations to inspect American embassies, reconstruction agencies, intelligence services, and the armed forces. He had a bird's-eye view of Europe and the Middle East as World War II neared its end. His stops included London, Algiers, Tunis, Cairo, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Karachi, Teheran, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Palestine, Beirut, Damascus, Ankara, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Florence, Paris, Rheims, Augsburg, Dachau, Wiesbaden, and Leipzig, among many others.

The Dirksen Center has created a Web-based feature that will give you an idea of what Dirksen's trip was like and how it affected his thinking about the state of the world in 1945. This Web presentation consists of the introduction, a timeline of Dirksen's trip with links to selective, digitized trip log entries and letters home, and a set of seven "anchor" documents with accompanying study questions. The historical documents are drawn from The Dirksen Congressional Center's archival holdings.
http://www.dirksencenter.org/1945trip/index.htm