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{
    "localId": "4708730",
    "label": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a memorandum for Harry S. Truman",
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{
    "id": "4708730",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4708730",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a memorandum for Harry S. Truman",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4708730",
    "identifierLocal": "hst19481229",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Personal Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Schuman, Robert, 1886-1963",
        "Rusk, Dean, 1909-1994",
        "Sandifer, Durward V. (Durward Valdamir), 1900-1981",
        "Bevin, Ernest, 1881-1951",
        "Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986",
        "United States-Soviet relations",
        "Reconstruction (1939-1951)",
        "International relations",
        "Arab-Israeli relations"
    ],
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{
    "seq": 9,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/30/7087/4708730/content/arcmedia/nlhst/eleanor/hst12-29-1948.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "Emc\nHyde Park\nDutchess County\nNew York\nDecember 29, 1948\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nDear Mr. President:\nDEC 31 II 30 AM 48\nI am sending you this\nRECEIVED\nlengthy report which I hope you\nmay have time to read and I look\nforward to seeing you on the\n13th of January.\nWith every good wish for\nthe New Year to you and Mrs. Truman\nand Margaret, I am,\nVery cordially yours,\nBARRY U.S. ARCHIVES 5. GOVERNMENT SERVICE\" RECORDS NATIONAL TRUMAN AND LIBRARY\nThen Robert\nMEMO FOR THE PRESIDENT:\nDecember 28, 1948\nU.S. SERVICE\" RECORDSAND LIBRARY\nGOVERNMENT\nFirst of all I want to tell you, Mr. President\nthat when the news of your election reached Europe, there\nwas general rejoicing. It gave to many statesmen and even\nto the people on the street who felt there might have been\na change in our foreign policy, a sense of security that\nthat which is now being done would be continued.\nNext, I think I should say that generally there\nis a feeling that Mr. Harriman has done a very good job and\na devoted one. As you know, I have not always felt that he\nhad a broad enough point of view and grasp of the world\nsituation, but he struck me as having greatly broadened and\nhaving been capable of growing with the opportunity which\nyou have given him, which after all, is the greatest thing\nthat one can ask of any one. He has chosen a good staff\nand everywhere I heard good things said of these people.\nPeople wrote me about the representatives they considered\nparticularly good in a number of cases. I heard also\nthat Mr. Harriman had handled labor very well.\nFrance, as he undoubtedly told you, is the\ngreatest headache still. I think he understands what some\nof the greatest difficulties are. Many of the young men\nwho fought in the resistance movement, or who were taken\nto camps and forced labor out of the country returned or\nfinished their period of the war, depleted physically and\nmentally. The food has not been sufficient in energy\n- 2 -\ngiving qualities. You can not, for instance even today,\nunless you are willing and able to buy in the black market\nget butter and sugar and only small children can get milk.\nUntil one comes back physically, one can not come back\nmentally and spiritually. Also the constant change of\ngovernments, due in large part to a very complicated\nsituation which I will be glad to explain if you are\ninterested, has made life for the working people in the\ncities very difficult and creates a lack of confidence in\nthe government.\nThe hardships are real and the Soviets through\ntheir communist party in France have offered both rural\nand city people certain benefits which they could not well\nresist. The French are not naturally communists but they\nfind it hard to be staunch in the sense that the British\nare and so they have accepted many communist things. This\ndoes not frighten me for the future but it creates great\ndifficulties for the present.\nThis question of economic well-being is\nexploited by the USSR in all nations and they promise much\nuntil they gain complete control, then people are worse\noff than they were before but up to that time they have\nhopes of being better off and this is what creates one\nof the dangers for us. Since we are really fighting ideas as\nwell as economic conditions and the Russians do a better\npropaganda job than we do because it is easier to say that\n- 3 -\nHARRY\nTRUMAN\nARCHIVES AND RECORDS\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nyour government is a government of workers for the\nGOVERNMENT\nbenefit of workers than it is to say that a democratic\ngovernment which is capitalistic benefits the workers more\nin the end. The only way to prove that to them, I think,\nis gradually to have more of them see conditions in our\ncountry, under supervision of course, and with every\narrangement made for them to return to their own country,\nbut the USSR is as loathe to let them come over as we have\nbeen to allow them to enter which makes this solution very\ndifficult.\nGreat Britain is going to pull through because\nit has stood up under incredible drabness of living and I\nthink will know how to use the aid coming to good account.\nOur relations with the British must, I think, be put on a\ndifferent basis. We are without question the leading\ndemocracy in the world today, but so far Great Britain\nstill takes the attitude that she makes the policies on all\nworld questions and we accept them. That has got to be\nremedied. We have got to make the policies and they have\ngot to accept them. Mr. Bevin has been unwise in many ways\nbut I will not put on paper what I would be willing to tell\nyou.\nI hope very much that the situation between\nourselves and the USSR can change in the coming year and that\nwe can accomplish final peace settlements. Germany can\nnot return to any kind of normality until that is done, for\nat present the heap of ruins and disillusioned people in\n- 4 -\nthe center of Europe makes it difficult for all around to\nrecover.\nI have a feeling that your attitude on Palestine\ndid a great deal to straighten out our own delegation and\nhelp the situation from the world point of view. The Arabs\nhave to be handled with strength. One of the troubles has\nbeen that we have been so impressed with the feeling that we\nmust have a united front in Europe that it has affected our\nstand in the Near East. I personally feel that it is more\nimportant for the French and for the British to be united\nwith us than for us to be united with them, and therefore\nwhen we make up our minds that something has to be done,\nwe should be the ones to do what we think is right and we\nshould not go through so many anxieties on the subject.\nThere are all kinds of hidden reasons why nations\nand their statesmen desire certain things which are not the\nreasons they usually give. The most truthful of the states-\nmen that I talked to while in Paris was Robert Schuman of\nFrance, but it does require some knowledge of the past and\nmuch background to be always on your guard and figure out\nwhat are the reasons for certain stands that are taken.\nI have great admiration for the Secretary of\nState and for many of the people in our State Department,\nbut sometimes I think we are a little bit too trusting and\nforget the past. In giving me as an adviser Mr. Durward\nSandifer, a lawyer of great experience and assistant to\nTRUMAN\nMr. Dean Rusk in the Department, I could not have been\nTHERTY U.S. S. ARCHIVES SERVICE\" \"NATIONAL RECORDS NMENT AND LIBRARY\nbetter served, but I still feel it is hard for the Depart-\n- 5 -\nEARCHIVES AN S. RECORDS TROMAN AND LIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT\nment to accept policies, without certain individuals trying\nto inject their own points of view and I do not think all\nof them have the knowledge and experience to take a world\npoint of view instead of a local one and by local I mean\nthe point of view which is affected by the particular area\nin which they have special knowledge and experience.\nI should like to say a word to you when we meet\non the subject of the bi-partisan policy and the representatives\nof the other party.\nI also learned that the Philippine representatives\nwere very much affected by the Equal Benefits Bill which is\nin Congress and I think if this goes through we will have a\nremarkable rise in their loyalty.\nThe thing above all others which I would like to\nbring to your attention is that we are now engaged in a\nsituation which is as complicated as fighting the war.\nDuring the war my husband had a map room and there were\nexperts who daily briefed him on what was happening in every\npart of the world. It seems to me now we are engaged in\nthe war for peace in which there enter questions of world\neconomy, food, religion, education, health and social con-\nditions, as well as military and power conditions. I have\na feeling that it would be helpful if you could build a\nsmall group of very eminent non-political experts in all\nthese fields whose duty it would be to watch the world\nscene and keep you briefed day by day in a map room. No\n- 6 -\none man can watch this whole world picture or have the\nbackground and knowledge to cover it accurately. It\nmust be achieved by wise choice of people in the various\nfields to do it well and understandingly.\nI have a feeling that our situation in Europe\nwill be solved in the next year without too much difficulty.\nOur real battlefield today is Asia and our real battle is\nthe one between democracy and communism. We can not ruin\nAmerica and achieve the results that have to be achieved\nin the world, so whatever we do must be done with the most\nextraordinary wisdom and foresight in the economic field.\nAt the same time we have to prove to the world and particularly\nto down trodden areas of the world which are the natural prey\nto the principles of communist economy that democracy really\nbrings about happier and better conditions for the people\nas a whole. Never was there an era in history in which the\nresponsibilities were greater for the United States, and\nnever was a President called upon to meet such extraordinary\nresponsibilities for civilization as a whole.\nI think you are entitled to the best brains\nand the best knowledge available in the world today. Congress\nmust understand this picture but it can not be expected to\nfollow it in the way that it has to be followed, for the\nknowledge must come from a group which you set up and from\nyou to them. You need something far greater than political\nadvice though that is also an essential in the picture at\nARCHIVES AND TRUMAN RECORDS SERVICE\" GOVERNM LIBRITATE THE\n- 9 -\nhome as well as abroad. The search should be for wise men\nof great knowledge and devoted to mankind, for mankind is\nat the cross roads. It can destroy itself or it can enter\ninto a new era of happiness and security. It seems to me\nthat you are the instrument chosen as a guide in this\nterribly serious situation and if there is anything which any\nof us can do to help you, you have a right to call upon us\nall.\nMARITY U.S. ARCHIVES 5. NATIONAL SERVICE\" RECORDS GOVERNMENT TRUMAM AND LIBRARY"
}