Letter from President Harry S. Truman to William Emerson

COPY - rmb 85-A February 12, 1952 HARRY ARCHIVES TRUMAN NATIONAL AND LIBRARY RECORDS SERVICE My dear Mr. Emerson: GOVERNMENT Please convey my warmest greetings to the delegates of the one hundred organizations who are meeting under the sponsorship of the American Association for the United Nations. The American Association for the United Nations is the direct successor of the League of Nations Association which was organized in 1923. If we had lived up to our international responsibilities as a nation in the 1920's, if we had joined the League of Nations, much of the tragedy and the suffering of our generation might well have been avoided. History has given us a second chance to save mankind from self-destruction. What we failed to do in the League of Nations, we must do in the United Nations. This time we cannot fail. We might not be given a third chance. In the turbulent years since it was founded, the United Nations has made a record of progress in the fields of human rights and social and economic welfare. It has met the challenge of inter- national disorder in Kashmir, Palestine and Indonesia, and paved the way for peaceful settlements. But the greatest test of the United Nations was the outright aggression of communist forces against the Republic of Korea. For the first time in human history, a world organization of nations not only denounced aggression but sent the men and the weapons to hurl it back. The action of the United Nations in Korea has proved that the principles of world peace set forth in the United Nations Charter are not just a scrap of paper. They mean enough to be worth fighting for. Justice among nations and a peaceful world order are no longer empty platitudes. They are a new force in history, a force that will ulti- mately prevail against international lawlessness and aggression. The years ahead may produce new dangers to the United Nations. While the forces of aggression have been checked, they may burst forth again. In the future, the United Nations may be challenged even more seriously than it has been in the past. With power-hungry aggressors threatening to rip up the fabric of world peace, we must redouble our efforts to strengthen the United Nations. Pencil notation: "Original to Mr. Hechler for delivery, WJH, 2/14/52". Corres feled PP72248