Letter from President Harry S. Truman to President Chaim Weizmann

C 0 P Y November 29, 1948. Personal and Confidential HARRY NATIONAL TRUMAN AND UBRARY SERVICE U.S. Dear Mr. President: GOVERNMENT Today - the first anniversary of the Partition Resolution - is a most appropriate time for me to answer your last letter, dated November 5th. As I read your letter, I was struck by the common experience you and I have recently shared. We had both been abandoned by the so-called realistic experts to our supposedly forlorn lost causes. Yet we both kept pressing for what we were sure was right - and we were both proven to be right. My feeling of elation on the morning of November 3rd must have approximated your own feelings one year ago today, and on May 14th, and on several occasions since then. However, it does not take long for bitter and resourceful opponents to regroup their forces after they have been shattered. You in Israel have already been confronted with that situation; and I expect to be all too soon. So I understand very well your concern to prevent the undermining of your well-earned victories. I remember well our conversation about the Negev, to which you referred in your letter. I agree fully with your estimate of the importance of that area to Israel, and I deplore any attempt to take it away from Israel. I had thought that my position would have been clear to all the world, particularly in the light of the specific wording of the Democratic Party Platform. But there were those who did not take this seriously, regarding it as "just another campaign promise" to be forgotten after the election. I believe they have recently realized their error. I have interpreted my re-election as a mandate from the American people to carry out the Democratic Platform - including, of course, the plank on Israel. I intend to do SO. Since your letter was written, we have announced in the General Assembly our firm intention to oppose any territorial changes in the