Editorial Note
President Truman took note and commented upon President Shvernik’s communication to him of August 6 (Document 798) on a number of occasions during the month of August. At his news conference on August 9, President Truman issued a prepared statement taking note of Shvernik’s communication and expressing gladness that the Soviet Government had permitted publication of the McMahon–Ribicoff Resolution. About the Shvernik communication, President Truman made the following specific comments:
“I noted with special interest the statement in Mr. Shvernik’s letter that the Soviet Government places no barriers in the path of the intercourse of the Soviet people with the people of other countries. This has not been true in the past—witness the rigid prohibitions laid down by the Soviet Government against people from the Soviet Union traveling abroad and people from other countries traveling in the Soviet Union, the rigid restrictions imposed by the Soviet Government on the reading of books and magazines and newspapers from outside of the Soviet Union by Soviet people, the large-scale and costly effort by the Soviet Government to ‘jam’ the radio broadcasts of the Voice of America and other free radios, the prevention by the Soviet Government of Russian wives of citizens of other countries from leaving the Soviet Union, and many other barriers preventing travel and communication between the Soviet Union and other countries. I will be particularly interested to see whether the Soviet Government means what it says, and now intends to change these policies.”(Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, page 455 or Department of State Bulletin, August 20, 1951, page 296)
At this news conference, President Truman indicated that he intended to respond to Shvernik’s communication. (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, page 456)
President Truman transmitted to Congress the texts of President Shvernik’s communication of August 6 and the accompanying resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR under cover of a Special Message of August 20. In that message, President Truman reviewed the circumstances of the transmission of the McMahon–Ribicoff Resolution to the Soviet Government under cover of his personal message of July 7 to President Shvernik, of the delay of more than a month in the publication within the Soviet Union of those documents, and their eventual release in connection with Shvernik’s message of August 6. President Truman observed that the published exchange had not resulted in any alteration of the character of Soviet propaganda and public statements [Page 1638] concerning the United States nor had given rise to any evidence that the Soviet Union was prepared to modify its “hostile and expansionist policies”. The President’s message went on as follows:
“If the Government of the Soviet Union wants to make progress toward peace, it can stop flouting the authority of the United Nations, it can cease supporting armed aggression in defiance of the verdict of the United Nations, it can make constructive contributions toward establishing conditions of peace with Germany, Austria and Japan, it can refrain from employing force to maintain in other countries regimes which do not command the support of their peoples, it can cease supporting subversive movements in other countries, it can cease its distortion of the motives and actions of other peoples and governments, it can stop violating fundamental human rights and liberties, and it can join in good faith in the earnest effort to find means for reducing armaments and controlling atomic energy in the interests of peace.
“Such acts would do far more than any words to show that the Soviet Union really wants peace.
“Until we have concrete evidence that the Soviet Union has in fact changed its policies, I cannot advise the Congress to change the policies of the United States. I believe that the policies on which we are embarked—to give every support to the constructive actions of the United Nations for peace, in Korea and elsewhere, to build defenses and to join in building the defenses of the free world, and to contribute in every way we can to the growth and strenghtening of free institutions around the world—I believe these are the policies most likely to bring about a change in the aggressive policies of the Soviet Government. Consequently, I urge that the Congress move ahead with the great program for national security and world peace that is now before it.”
In particular President Truman urged Congress to take steps to open up channels of communication between the peoples of the United States and the peoples of the Soviet Union, and he also urged Congress to provide adequate appropriations for the Campaign of Truth and the work of the Voice of America. For his part, President Truman promised to answer Shvernik’s communication “in the near future”.
For text of President Truman’s Special Message to Congress, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, pages 475–477 or Department of State Bulletin, September 3, 1951, pages 379–381.
At his news conference on August 30, President Truman was again asked by a reporter about his intention to respond to Shvernik’s communication. The President replied: “No, there is no hurry. Those things have to be done very deliberately. I meant what I said when I said I would pursue the correspondence.” [Page 1639] (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, page 493)