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{
    "localId": "4708715",
    "label": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a copy of a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Dean G. Acheson",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman, accompanied by a copy of a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Dean G. Acheson",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4708715",
    "identifierLocal": "hst19500613",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Personal Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "International relations",
        "Voyages and travels"
    ],
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 13,
            "logicalDate": "1950-06-13",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1950
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{
    "seq": 5,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/7087/4708715/content/arcmedia/nlhst/eleanor/hst06-13-1950.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt\nThe Park Sheraton Hotel\n202 Fifty Sixth Street West\nNew York 19, N.Y.\nJune 13, 1950\nDear Mr. President:\nI am enclosing to you a copy of a letter which\nI have sent to Mr. Hickerson to give to the\nSecretary if he thinks it worth while. I am\nsending you this copy simply because when I\nspoke to you about this trip you said you\nwould be interested in my impressions. I\nrealize quite well that you have so much in-\nformation this may be completely valueless.\nWhile over here I have spoken a good deal\nabout you and your administration and the\nideals for which you stand. I would like\nyou to be in close touch with what I do as\nI hope that you will feel it is a support\nto your policies.\nWith warm good wishes and FF hope that you will\nget some holiday this summer, and wi th my\ns.\nTROMAM\nkind regards to Mrs. Truman and Margaret, I\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nam\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nSERVICE\"\nVery cordially yours,\nGOVERNMENT\nThear\nCOPY\nHelsinki\nJune 13, 1950\nDear Mr. Secretary:\nNow that I have reached Finland I want to send you\njust a line because I feel in the first place, I\nwant to thank the people in the Department who so\nkindly spoke to all our representatives over here\nand I also want to tell you how extremely kind\nMr. and Mrs. Bay, Mr. and Mrs. Cummin and Mr.\nCabot have been, as well as their staffs.\nU.S. SERVICE\" RECORDSAND S. TRUMAN CIBRARY\nI am not writing this letter, however, just to say\nthank you. I feel you might be interested in the\nGOVERNMENT\nimpressions gathered by an unofficial visitor.\nIn these countries I feel that everywhere there is\nfear but at the same time, a desperate kind of\ncourage. They do not talk of war and they go about\ntheir daily business and they build and they do try\nto improve the life of the people. In fact they\nput a tremendous amount of vigor into the effort\nthey are making to improve life for the people as\na whole and yet you feel there is a constant shadow\nnot very far away.\nIn Norway the heads of government talked guardedly\nand having joined the Atlantic Pact they, of course,\nare anxious to be reassured about our attitude.\nThey must count on us if trouble comes, but they\nare going to do everything possible to carry their\nfull share.\nI was particularly interested in some talks with\nmembers of the Parliament and government officials\nin Sweden. I have been very careful neither to\nask questions nor to offer any views of my own on\npublic questions, but they went out of their way to\ntell me about their differences of opinion on the\nAtlantic Pact. As you know, only four members of\nthe Swedish Parliament voted to join but they told\nme that this did not indicate they were not anxious\nto do their full share in preparation for defense.\nThe party in power, socialists and farmers, want\nto preserve the traditional Swedish neutrality,\nbut there is a group which is a large one, that\nwould like to join unofficially in having a joint\n- 2 -\ndefense program with Norway and Sweden. This is\na little difficult since they are unable to join\nthe Atlantic Pact openly, but they are not comfort-\nable about that and I felt there was an apologetic\nattitude.\nOn the whole, I think all of them are grateful to\nthe United States and recognize that the things they\nbelieve in and live by are really the things repre-\nsented by the United States. On the whole most of\nthe responsible people do not seem to be taken in\nby Soviet propaganda.\nI hope that in my speeches and press conferences\nand talks in general, I have done some good. I am\nsure that all of our Ambassadors must be very anxious\nwhen strangers who are not familiar with the situations\ncome and talk during these very touchy times but I\ndo not think I have said anything which is not in\ncomplete harmony with the foreign policy as stated\nby you and the President.\nNow I just report something that troubles me, namely,\nsome of our industrialists and some of the members\nof Congress seem to have left the impression that\nwe are not averse to going to war on the theory that\nwe will have to go to war in the end and we might as\nwell do it while the balance of power is on our side.\nI do not know that they have actually said it but\nthat is the impression they left and it frightens\nmost of the people very much indeed. It is hard\nfor them to realize that this attitude does not\nrepresent the attitude of the edministration or of\nthe majority of our people. In addition, some of\nour Senators, belonging to both parties, seem to\nhave said things over here which they could say\neasily at home and which would be understood as a\nreflection of partiean or personal views, but over\nhere it seems to be disloyalty to the present admin-\nistration and results in complete confusion on the\npart of those to whom they talk. I do not know\nhow this could be prevented unless it were possible\nto say to each individual coming over that they have\na responsibility to prove that our country is a\nunified one on its foreign policy and above everything\nelse we mean to support the United Nations and work\nfor world peace.\nSome of these people seem to have left the impression\nthat they consider the UN a complete failure and not\n- 3 -\nreally worth paying any attention to, which of\ncourse, takes away one of the things that these\npeople pray will be a bulwark for peace.\nI am sure you get much more real information\nfrom your own people over here but they are\nofficial and while my impressions are gathered\non the run, and of course not to be trusted\nagainst more reliable sources of information,\nI thought even such unofficial conversations\nmight be of some interest to you and the\nDepartment.\nWith renewed thanks for all of the courtesies\nthat the Department has extended to me, I am\nVery sincerely yours,\n$\nTRUMAN\nTHERT\nNATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nU.S.\nSERVICE\"\nGOVERNMENT"
}