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{
    "localId": "213875861",
    "label": "Memorandum from Sidney Souers to President Harry S. Truman, with Attached National Security Council Report 20/1, A Report to the National Security Council by the Department of State on United States Objectives with Respect to Russia",
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    "id": "213875861",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from Sidney Souers to President Harry S. Truman, with Attached National Security Council Report 20/1, A Report to the National Security Council by the Department of State on United States Objectives with Respect to Russia",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 18,
            "logicalDate": "1948-08-18",
            "month": 8,
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    "seq": 12,
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    "ocrText": "TOP SECRET\nof the relationship between the Soviet Union and the outside world,\nwhich is one of permanent antagonism and conflict, taking place\nsometimes within a framework of formal peace and at other times\nwithin the legal framework of war.\nOn the other hand, it is clear that a democracy cannot effect,\nas the totalitarian state sometimes does, a complete identifica-\ntion of its peacetime and wartime objectives. Its aversion to war\nas a method of foreign policy is so strong that it will inevitably\nbe inclined to modify its objectives in peacetime, in the hope\nthat they may be achieved without resort to arms. When this hope\nand this restraint are removed by the outbreak of war, as a result\nof the provocation of others, the irritation of democratic opinion\ngenerally demands either the formulation of further objectives,\noften of a punitive nature, which it would not have supported in\ntime of peace, or the immediate realization of aims which it might\notherwise have been prepared to pursue patiently, by gradual pres-\nsures, over the course of decades. It would therefore be unreal -\nistic to suppose that the U. S. Government could hope to proceed.\nin time of war on the basis of exactly the same set of objectives,\nor at least with the same time-table for realization of object-\nives, which it would have in time of peace.\nAt the same time, it must be recognized that the smaller\nthe gap between peacetime and wartime purposes, the greater the\nlikelihood that a successful military effort will be politically\nsuccessful as well. If objectives are really sound from the\nNSC 20/1\n- 4 -\nTOP SECRET"
}