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The President of the University of Pennsylvania (Stassen) to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (Stalin)1
It is now three and one half years since I talked with you in a conference at the Kremlin2 at the conclusion of which you informally invited me to confer again in the future. I write to you now, as I spoke then, as a private citizen of the United States and as a member of the party which is not now in power in the administration of our country.
I write to you now, as I spoke then, in the interest of world peace and freedom and progress for mankind; and not to influence your government in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, which are entirely in the hands of our officials.
As you may realize, each and every one of the things I said to you about the United States in 1947, in the discussion which was published then throughout both countries, has proven to be true and correct.
The United States has not had the economic crash or depression which your advisers were saying would come and which I said would not come.
The United States has demonstrated, as I said it would, that its economic system is different from Hitler’s economic system and not like it, as you indicated.
The total United States world trade has not been more than 12%, has not increased to 20% as you indicated it would, and has not been profitable but has been financed by loans and European Recovery grants.
The failure to agree on international control of atomic energy for peace has increased world tensions and bitterness.
The Soviet Union’s continued barring of opportunities for the American-people—including students and tourists—to visit Russia and its continued censorship of the American press correspondents has added to misunderstandings.
On the other hand you stated in our discussion that the Soviet Union desired world peace.
I find it impossible to reconcile that statement with the North Korean aggression, with the Soviet Union’s refusal to cooperate in stopping that aggression, with the Soviet Union’s rearmament of Eastern [Page 1252] Germany and with other recent actions of the Soviet Union. I have spoken of these developments and of what they mean to the American people in an address on August 15, 1950.
I therefore write to you this personal message in an effort to stop the drift toward war and to change the direction of world actions instead toward peace and human progress. The Soviet Union’s direction will be judged not by words or documents, but by actions.
To this end, I say to you that if your advisors are now telling you that the United States will have an economic failure if forced to carry on a long rearmament program, they are wrong again. I am certain that if it must be done, the United States can match Soviet rearmament for ten or twenty years, or indefinitely, without an economic failure. Our labor, our industrialists, our farmers, all of our people in our free society under our modern people’s capitalism, have learned more and more about production methods and they can accomplish miraculous results.
I also say to you that if your advisers tell you that the American people are divided and quarrelling with each other and that this will weaken the United States, they are wrong. None of our quarrels or differences will affect the united armament effort, the united production, or the united mobilization of our country.
If your advisers tell you that the Communist organizations in this country can undermine our economic and military strength, they are wrong. Just as rapidly as Communist members show such intentions, they will find American labor and the American people quickly overcoming them.
If your advisers tell you that our young men will not go back into uniform and fight they are wrong. Much as they dislike war, the young men of the United States, veterans and non-veterans, will go into uniform in any numbers necessary to join with other members of the United Nations to defend the peace-desiring nations of the world and to thoroughly defeat anyone who starts a third World War.
If your advisers tell you that the United States may attack the Soviet Union without provocation they are wrong. If neither the Soviet Union, nor any of the other Communist states associated with it, commit aggression, the people of the United States would never support or permit the waging of war against the Soviet Union, and would never start an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. The American people continue to feel friendly toward the Russian people and still remember the great sacrifices and heroic fighting of the Russian armies in our joint victories over Hitler’s Nazi forces.
I therefore write to you to urge that you change the policy of the Soviet Union and move toward world peace and freedom for mankind. I urge that you stop attacking the churches in the Balkans. I urge that you open your borders to tourists and merchants and students [Page 1253] and increase the freedom of the peoples of all nationalities within the Communist governed countries. I urge that you join in rewriting and strengthening the United Nations Charter.
If you do move toward peace and freedom much can be accomplished through the cooperation of our countries to improve the living conditions of the people in both countries and of the people in therest of the world. If you do not, the rearmament programs throughout the world will add a burden of suffering and hardship on the backs of millions of innocent peoples, and the world tensions and dangers of war will increase.
If you doubt any of the things I say to you, I believe that I can prove each point to you with much evidence, either through correspondence or further conferences, with the understanding that everything we both said would be openly and publicly released to the people as our previous conversation was released, and as this message will be released to the people within a few days.
Sincerely,
- The Embassy in the Soviet Union was informed in telegram 227 on October 4 that this letter would be released to the press on October 4, and would be carried on a Voice of America broadcast. The letter was published, together with an article, in the New York Times, October 5, 1950, pp. 1, 18. Harold E. Stassen had sent a copy of the letter to Secretary of State Acheson on October 2.↩
- In regard to the interview between Stalin and Stassen in Moscow on April 9, 1947, see telegram 1343, April 14, from Moscow, Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. iv, p. 552.↩