Letter from Mrs. L. Weissman to President Harry S. Truman

77/25/50 317 East 93 St. P.P.F. New York City 28 July 22, 1950 200 Mr. Harry S. Truman President of the United States Blair House 7/19/50 Washington, D. C. Cor Dear Mr. President: W Profound distress and disappointment at listening to your speech to the people on Wednesday has prompted me to write this letter. You gave us no hope, Mr. President, that renewed and stronger effort to end bloodshed and establish peace would be made. You promised us only more war. You did not mention super- human effort to mediate, to negotiate, even to compromise, as is necessary, often, to make peace. You only mention superhuman sacrifice of our liberties, desires and hopes when such sacrifices have barely matured into memories of the last war, a scant five years ago. We have not yet begun to recover from that war. Mr. President, you gave us no real assurance that the atomic bomb would not be used. You must do all within your power to bar its use. You must use your strength to influence the United Nations to ban atomic weapons and missiles everywhere, now and forever. You must do more than that, Mr. President. Please, I beg you, halt the warfare in Korea. Command the withdrawal of American troops and demand a halt of intervention by our forces in Indo-China and in China. We don't belong in any of those places. Let the United Nations take over, Mr. President. We - our country- can give the United Nations the means to function properly if we will recognize the People's Republic of China. This will restore the United Nations as a working organization for peace, and there, on its floors, criticisms can be made, accusations discussed and the problems of peace solved. I have looked back over the events since June 25 and find myself taking issue with your statements. You said the North Korean attack came without provocation. Yet for months and months, our newspapers have been reporting that Syngman Rhee has been taunting the North Koreans, saying that he could take over North Korea in a few days, but he was merely waiting for "say-so" from the United States and then he would attack. And just two days before the outbreak of fighting, our newspapers published pictures of Mr. John Foster Dulles inspecting trenches with Mr. Rhee at the 38th parallel. Isn't that provocation? While I wish with all my heart the North Koreans had withstood such provocation, in all fairness I could not blame them completely if, if it is true, they did attack first. Why Was it, Mr. President, that we allowed the representative of Syngman Rhee's government to present their case, but did not allow a representative of the North Koreans to tell their version of this story? Why were American troops already on their way and fighting before the Security Council was even in session? Is General McArthur's power and authority greater than yours, that he could take it upon himself to act before the Security Coûncil had time to act on American resolutions ? Is General McArthur so ambitious for glory he cannot wait? The Korean war is - or Was, until American troops entered - a civil war in exactly the terms the Spanish revolution was a civil war. If our country could not intervene in the Spanish civil war when such intervention might have prevented World War II, why are we interfering