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{
    "localId": "294549840",
    "label": "Memorandum from Walter Bedell Smith to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment",
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{
    "id": "294549840",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/294549840",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from Walter Bedell Smith to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/294549840",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "naId": 294549840,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 19,
            "logicalDate": "1951-02-19",
            "month": 2,
            "year": 1951
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{
    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750371/750371-25-003.tif",
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    "ocrText": "increase of the armed forces of a country and an armaments drive lead to the\nexpansion of war industry, to curtailment of civil industry, to suspension of\nbig civilian construction projects, to an increase in taxes, and to a rise in\nthe prices of consumer goods.\nIt is clear that if the Soviet Union is not reducing but on the contrary\nextending civil industry, is not reducing but on the contrary developing the\nconstruction of grandiose hydroelectric power stations and irrigation systems,\ndoes not suspend but on the contrary continues the policy of lowering prices,\nit cannot simultaneously inflate war industry and multiply its armed forces\nwithout risking bankruptcy.\nIf, therefore, Prime Minister Attlee, regardless of all these facts and\nscientific considerations, still deems it possible openly to slander the USSR\nand its peaceful policy, it can only be explained by his imagining that by\nslandering the USSR he can justify the armaments race in Britain which is now\nbeing pursued by the Labor Government.\nPrime Minister Attlee needs lies about the USSR. He needs to represent\nthe peaceful policy of the USSR as an aggressive one, and the aggressive policy\nof the British Government as a peaceful one, in order to deceive the British\npeople, to foist upon them these lies about the USSR, and thus to draw them by\ndeceit into a new world war, which is being organized by the ruling circles of\nthe United States.\nPrime Minister Attlee says he is a protagonist of peace, but if he really\nstands for peace, why did he reject the proposal of the USSR in the United\nNations for the immediate conclusion of a peace pact between the USSR, Britain,\nthe United States, China, and France?\nIf he really stands for peace, why did he reject the proposal of the USSR\nthat an immediate start be made with reduction of armaments, with an immediate\nprohibition of atomic weapons?\nIf he really stands for peace, why is he persecuting the peace partisans?\nWhy did he prohibit the peace partisans' conference in Britain? Can the\ncampaign of defending peace threaten Britain's security?"
}