text: The bid still needed approval from the United States Congress and the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the French organization that was in charge of approving world's fairs. With Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., submitting competing bids, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed a committee to review the 1964 world's fair bids in October 1959, and Eisenhower approved the New York bid later that month. Seventy-five nations had informally indicated an intention to attend the fair by late 1959, and the WFC began looking for a president and three additional managers in early 1960. Moses was tentatively selected as the WFC's president that March, despite Kopple's objections that Moses was too old. In turn, Moses would not take the job unless Kopple resigned, as the two men had disagreed bitterly over the canceled Mid-Manhattan Elevated Expressway. After Kopple quit the WFC, Moses formally became the WFC's president that May. Moses wanted the fair to run for two years, and consultants for the WFC predicted that the fair would have 70 million visitors during that time.
  Moses traveled to Paris to ask for the BIE's recognition of the fair. Although the BIE had allowed the WFC to begin planning the fair in November 1959, BIE officials decided not to give formal recognition to the fair. Under BIE rules, world's fairs could run for only one 6-month period, though the WFC had tried to request an exemption. The New York fair would also charge rent to foreign governments, contravening another BIE rule that prevented rent from being charged to exhibitors. In addition, the BIE allowed only one exposition per country every ten years. These rules were not immutable; for example, the BIE had recognized the 1939 fair, even though the previous exposition had run for two seasons. However, Moses refused to negotiate with BIE officials and treated them derisively, belittling the BIE as a "bunch of clowns in Paris". As such, the BIE instead decided to approve the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and the BIE directed its members to not host official exhibits at the fair.