Letter from President Harry S. Truman to the Congress of the United States

Original 1 the accepting new t m Hadder 29" HARRY NATIONAL TRUMAN LIBRARY ARCHIVES AND To the Congress of the United States: RECORDS SERVICE GOVERNMENT I transmit horewith, pursuant to the United Nations Participation not, a report on the work of the United States in the United Nations during 1951 This will be my last report, as President, to the Congress on our participation in the United Nations, I have dedicated my seven years 08 President of the United States to working for world peace. That has been my paramount adm since becoming President. The first order I issued after being into office on April 12, 1945, was that the United States should carry out its plan to participate in the United Nations Conference, which nob on April 25 in San Francisco, Since that time, the United Nations has been the mainstay of OUR work to build a peaceful and decent world, During these years, the United Nations has faced many trials and difficultion. In 1945, there were high hopes that this partnership of nations would quicidy load to permanent peace and the of the general welfare of the nations, But these hopes have been disned by the conflicts of the succeeding years, and by the hostile attitude of the Soviet Union. An a result, vodoos have boon ralsed, questioning the value for up of the United Nations and the nood for madntaining 1t. Nevertheless, in spâte of all these difficulties and discouragemente, the United Nations remains the best mone available to our generation for schieving peace for the community of natdons The United Nations, in this respect, is vital to our future an a free people In this nossage, I want to explain why this is true, and to Bus up a fou of the reasons why we should continue to support the United Nations in this dangerous period in the history of mankind The need for a world organization of nations should have been made clear to us by the first World War. But President Wilson's ploneering afforts to organise world peace through the League of Nations were thearted by DOIS /mericans who still thought to could turn back the clock of history. We had to pay a terrible price for that kind of narrow thinking in the second World Was