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{
    "localId": "4708720",
    "label": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a copy of a memo to the Department of State",
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{
    "id": "4708720",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4708720",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a copy of a memo to the Department of State",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4708720",
    "identifierLocal": "hst19510527",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Personal Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "United Nations",
        "Malik, Charles Habib, 1906-",
        "International relations"
    ],
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 27,
            "logicalDate": "1951-05-27",
            "month": 5,
            "year": 1951
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    "seq": 5,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/20/7087/4708720/content/arcmedia/nlhst/eleanor/hst05-27-1951.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "The President had interview with\nMr Roosevelt - SO this an wered in\nperson.\nVAL-KILL COTTAGE\nRAC\nHYDE PARK, DUTCHESS CO.\nNEW YORK\nMay 27, 1951\nDear Mr. President:\nI am sending you the enclosed,\na copy of which I have sent to the State\nDepartment. I thought it might suggest\nsome questions that you wanted to ask\nme.\nI am so glad I am going to\nhave the opportunity of seeing you on\nTuesday.\nBARRY So. ARCHIVES AND TRUMAN NECORDS LIBRARY\nVery cordially yours,\nB.S.\n-\nSERVICE\" GOVERNMENT\nThenor\nI want to re-emphasize the same observations which\nI made after the meeting of the General Assembly last autumn\nand particularly my experience in Committee #3.\nI think the great nations, but especially the United\nStates, have got to understand that there is a feeling in the\nworld of a desire to attain some kind of a better standard of\nliving and they feel that particularly the United States has\nan obligation to make the plans and help them to carry them\nout to attain those standards.\nThey are a little fearful:\nU.S. ARCHIVES SERVICE\" GOVERNMENT ILLUNDS TOTHIN AND LIMIT\n1. That we do not care what happens to colored\npopulations throughout the world.\n2. That our main interest is in power and gain\nfor ourselves.\n3. That we are building up so much military power\nthat while on one hand they hope it will protect them against\nthe military power that they know is in the hands of the USSR,\non the other hand they are a little afraid of it as a weapon\nwhich may be used to gain economic advantages.\nAltogether their feelings are haghly mixed about us.\nThey are afraid of the USSR but in some ways most of these nations\nhave never known freedom and therefore it is almost easier to\naccept the type of totalitarian system that tells them definitely\nit\nwhat to do than/does to accept the democratic system which\nseems to require so much of them.\nJust to illustrate my point, Dr. Charles Malik of\nLebanon, told me he felt we had missed a great opportunity when\nthe Shah of Persia was here. We should have had a plan ready\nto clean up his government and help him to help his people and\n- 2 -\nand we should have made him accept it and we should have sent people\nto help him put it in operation. Dr. Malik openly told me, in\nconfidence of course, that no government in the Near East was\nthat\nanything but rotten,/ the King of Egypt was a fool and unless we\nwere going to take hold, the USSR undoubtedly would. This is\na very tall order because it requires an amount of organization\non our part and the searching for personnel first of all to make\nthe plans and then to help carry them out. It is almost going\nto require a different type of education in our colleges.\nI also have a feeling that at the proper time some\ntop level gesture will have to be made in relation with the\nUSSR, but that is something I would like to talk over with you.\nIn talking with the Dutchman who heads up the World\nCouncil of Churches who had just come back from a trip in the\nNear East, this feeling was emphasized, that something had to be\ndone to re-settle the refugees and to straighten out those\ngovernments. He used China as an example to show what would\neventually happen if bad government was allowed to continue in\nthe way it had continued in China.\nIt is hard for us to realize but I felt it in the\ncommittee and got repercussions from the World Health Organiz-\nation, that they balance the amount of money that we contribute\nagainst the results that that money can bring about in their\ncountries. They do not realize that it means a sacrifice on\nour part because they do not measure the results in the\nstandard of living to our people against what we now have, but\nthey measure them against their own standard of living and\nthey feel, of course, thatwwe have lost nothing. This is\nridiculous and should never be accepted but it must be under-\n- 3 -\nwhy\nstood because it is one of the reasons **** they feel as they\ndo. The reason they go all out on economic and social rights\nin the Human Rights Commission is because those are the rights\nthat mean something tangible too them in their every day lives.\nThey do not expect them to be achieved over night but they\nuse the word \"right\" in a different sense than we do legally.\nHow we are going to explain all this to the\nAmerican Bar Association and Congress I really do not know, but\nsomehow it has to be got across because everywhere the emphasis\nis going to be on how they are going to get a sense of hope\nof attaining even one notch on the upward path.\nAs I am going to see you I will make this brief\nbut these are the fundamental things I think we have to accept\nand consider in making our future policies and are the things\nwhich somehow we have to get across to Congress and to the\npeople of the United States.\nTRUMAN\nBARRY\n'NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT"
}