Institute releases excerpts of Dole letters detailing life at KU, war experiences

LAWRENCE -- The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics is releasing excerpts from a recently discovered collection of letters written by former Sen. Bob Dole. He wrote the letters during his time as a student at the University of Kansas and after he left to join the battle in World War II.

About 300 letters dated between 1941 and 1945, 94 of them written by Dole, were found by Dole Institute archivists in the basement of Dole's family home in Russell. The letters reflect Dole's life at KU and life in the Army and in Italy.

Dole wrote the first set of letters while he attended KU between September 1941 and December 1942. The early letters often focused on grades and sports achievements, but they sometimes accompanied loads of laundry, which Dole explained could be done more cheaply in Russell than in Lawrence.

The early letters also addressed some of Dole's concerns about being called away to war.

"I haven't heard a word from the Army so I'm still going to school although I can't say that I'm getting much out of it," he wrote in the fall of 1942. "About every day we hear a different story as to when we will be called and I just can't see this studying when we will be called. My orders to report will come to Russell so as soon as you get them call me and let me know."

Dole was called to duty in December of that year. The next set of letters came to Russell from locations including Fort Leavenworth; Camp Barkeley, Texas; Brooklyn, N.Y; Camp Polk, La.; and Fort Benning, Ga., where Dole attended officer candidate school.

Dole relayed home information about his training. He said he got þtired of taking orders,ú but he supposed it would be good for him later on.

Dole also kept his sense of humor.

"Tomorrow is Sunday so we're going to church," he wrote from Camp Barkeley. "'Moon' is going too, he's a little short on change and he thinks he can get a little out of the collection plate."

When Dole arrived in Italy in late 1944, he first reported on the conditions before requesting candy, Vicks VapoRub, wool socks, liver and onions, fruit cocktail and Frank Sinatra.

"I guess you might as well send the whole house if you can get it in a 5-pound box," he wrote.

The Dole Institute will include the letters in its extensive collection of Dole's personal and professional papers. The archive of the Dole Institute will house, preserve and make available Dole's House and Senate papers and the related papers of Dole staffers (more than 900 individuals worked for Dole between 1961 and 1996) and other close associates who played an important part in Dole's career and campaigns.

The collections will be a unique tool with which researchers and future generations of students may study the workings of American politics in the latter half of the 20th century.

The collection reflects Dole's 36 years, spanning 1961 through 1996, on Capitol Hill, and it consists of 4,000 boxes of papers and close to 1,000 square feet of artifacts. Because of Dole's extensive legislative career and his majority leadership position, it is the largest collection of one politician's papers outside of presidential collections -- 60 percent larger than the Hubert Humphrey Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society and six times the size of the Tip O'Neill Collection at Boston College.

For more information about the Dole collection, call Dole Archivist Jean Bischoff at (785) 864-2033.

A four-day Dole Institute dedication program July 19 through 22 will include the ConocoPhillips military air parade and a fashion show; a re-created USO-style performance; an evening of dancing to the Glenn Miller Orchestra; and an outdoor concert by the 312th Army Band as well as the formal dedication. Among the dignitaries attending the events are former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation." The events will start at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19, with the kickoff of the Memory Tent, which will begin with "Heroes of Lawrence, Part 1."

For more information about the event visit www.doleinstitute.org/dedication or www.dolemedia.ku.edu.