He informed them that his main purpose was "to promote the basic concepts of education in a democracy".[122] As a result, he was "almost incessantly" devoted to the idea of the American Assembly, a concept he developed into an institution by the end of 1950.[119]
Within months of beginning his tenure as the president of the university, Eisenhower was requested to advise U.S. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal on the unification of the armed services.[123] About six months after his appointment, he became the informal Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.[124] Two months later he fell ill with what was diagnosed as acute gastroenteritis, and he spent over a month in recovery at the Augusta National Golf Club.[125] He returned to his post in New York in mid-May, and in July 1949 took a two-month vacation out-of-state.[126] Because the American Assembly had begun to take shape, he traveled around the country during summer and fall 1950, building financial support for it from various sources, including from Columbia Associates, a recently created alumni and benefactor organization for which he had helped recruit members.