Letter from Harry S. Truman to Eleanor Roosevelt

HST-71 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON Submarine Base, Key West, Fla. February 27, 1948 Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: I appreciated very much your letter of February 20 in re- gard to the Bronx election. Naturally, all sorts of conjectures are given as to the reason for that return. It is my honest opinion that people everywhere are in an unsettled frame of mind, that the revolt in 1946 is not yet finished, and that you must also take into consideration the fact that the leaders in the Democratic Party are tired, with the long grind through which we have been, due to the terrible depression and World War Two. I have to do things my own way, but I was a member of the resolutions committee that had a great deal to do with writing the Democratic platform of 1944, and I have been try- ing religiously to carryit out. We haven't had a Congress since 1944 that had any idea of abiding by that platform. I can't bring myself to line up with the crackpots who are trying to sell us out to the Russian government, nor can I see anything good in the Harry Byrds and Eugene Coxes. That is the situation with which we are confronted now. I shall continue to do the best I can to meet the problems with which we are faced. The result is probably in the lap of the gods, although sometimes a little help and a little energy will get results in spite of that situation. I hope you have a most pleasant visit in Grest pritain, and that I will have a chance to talk with you when you return as to conditions over there, which you no doubt will observe carefully. I had a most pleasant visit with Jimmie the other day, and the Secretary of Defense has been informed as to my views on the international police force. of course, if the United Nations international police force is organized, the citizenship of the members of that force in their native countries should not be disturbed. Sincerely yours, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt 29 Washington Sq.,W. New York 11, N.Y. Henythmae