UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS 187. COOPERATION FOR PEACE (a) Message by President Truman to the President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, November 7, 1945 1 It gives me great pleasure on this national anniversary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to send to Your Excellency and to the people of the Soviet Union the congratulations and best wishes of the people of the United States, as well as my own personal greetings and felicitations. Through the joint efforts of our two peoples and their valiant armed forces, in alliance with the other peoples of the United Nations, the forces of aggression in Europe and Asia which constituted so dangerous a threat to the freedom and prosperity of the peoples of the world have been totally defeated in a long and bloody struggle. The years ahead offer an unexampled opportunity for achieving peaceful progress and improving the lot of the common man. The recent entry into effect of the United Nations Charter is a happy augury for cooperation between our two peoples and the other free nations of the world in the quest for firm, lasting and universal peace. I am confident that the challenge presented as a result of our joint victory over the common enemy will be successfully and constructively met through the continued cooperation of our two peoples during the coming years of peace in the same spirit which animated them during the past four years of war. HARRY S. TRUMAN (b) Address by Secretary Marshall, Delivered at Chicago, November 18, 1947 2 During the meeting of the United Nations Assembly there was a great deal said, with considerable vituperation, regarding the attitude of the Government and people of the United States toward the Soviet Union, along with the direct accusation that a war spirit was being fomented by our press and by distinguished citizens who were named. A portion of this, the major portion I assume, was intended for pure propaganda purposes. But I also assume that there may have been some genuine feeling that the purposes of this Government and the attitude of most of the American press were definitely hostile to the Soviet Union. As a responsible official of the United States Government I would like to see more restraint than is sometimes exhibited in discussions of international issues. But as regards the critical attitude recently manifested in this country toward the Soviet Union, I should like to distinguish between this effect and its cause. To determine that cause it is necessary to go back at least as far as the summer of 1945, immediately following the German surrender. At that time I think it was a fact that the people of the United States had as high a regard, or I might better put it, appreciation, for the Soviet people and their sacrifices, and for the Soviet 1 Department of State Bulletin of November 11, 1945, p. 768. Army and its leaders, as they held for any other people in the world. But today, only two years later, we are charged with a definite hostility toward the Soviet Union and its people, which constitutes a complete change in our attitude since the summer of 1945. I recognize this effect. I would not characterize it as hostile. But the important question is, "What produced this tremendous change in our national feeling and attitude?" The truth as I see it is that from the termination of hostilities down to the present time the Soviet Government has consistently followed a course which was bound to arouse the resentment of our people. Just what the purpose of this remarkable procedure has been, particularly during 1946, I have been at a loss to determine. So many of the actions of that Government were provocative without any other evident purpose. I have endeavored to find at least a partial explanation in the historical characteristics of the Russian Government and its officials through a long period of years and not solely related to the present regime. While some light can thus be cast on the problem, it does not, even in a small way, explain why a government should proceed with apparent deliberation to destroy the invaluable asset of high regard and good-will which it possessed in the attitude of the American people and why it should deliberately provoke such animosities as are evident at this time. The people of this country are God-fearing people. They have been very patient in their attitude towards misrepresentation of their actions and motives when their only purpose has been to help the other fellow. Today our people have been virtually driven into a state of active resentment, and, having been goaded to this point, they are accused of having lighted and stoked this great fire of public resentment. This last is propaganda, yes, of the most brazen and contemptuous character. But since it affects the very stability of the world, it is time to call a halt to such inflammatory practices. I am not pessimistic regarding the progress made by the United Nations during the recent Assembly meeting. The fact that the world has a forum for free debate is in itself a hopeful portent for the future. The fact that debates have sometimes included more of vituperation or diatribe than of logic or adherence to the facts was unfortunate but in the long run, I think, merely incidental and an always present possibility in any democratic debate. The organization did pass through a serious struggle, but I think it emerged without loss of potential strength. 188. SMITH-MOLOTOV EXCHANGE1 (a) Statement of Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith, to Foreign Minister Molotov, May 4, 1948 Two years ago during my initial conversation with Generalissimo Stalin and yourself, I stated as clearly as possible my estimate of the inevitable reaction of the American people to the continuance of a policy by the Soviet Government which would appear to have as its purpose the progressive extension of the area of Soviet power. 1 Department of State Bulletin, May 23, 1948, pp. 679-686. On May 4 Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith called on V. M. Molotov, Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs, and made to him this oral statement on behalf of the United States Government. that time I pointed out that it would be a grave misinterpretation of the fundamentally pacific character of the American people to believe that they would not react strongly and vigorously to the progressive domination by one country of its neighbors and the clear threat to the world community which such actions would imply. I emphasized at that time that the United States had no desire whatever to see the world divided into two major groupings, nor to divert a large part of its income to the maintenance of a military establishment which such a world situation would necessitate in elementary self-defense. It seemed apparent then that such a line of policy as that described would lead inevitably to a crystallization of the non-Soviet areas of the world, whose people would quite understandably feel themselves progressively threatened by such developments. It seemed also inevitable in such a case that the United States, as the strongest nation in this community, would be forced. to take a leading part in this movement and to divert a large portion of its energy, which by preference our people would prefer to utilize for assistance in the reconstruction of the ravages of the war, to the maintenance of a military establishment adequate to meet the developing world situation. Unhappily the apprehensions I felt at that time have been realized. Since that date, Soviet policies in eastern Europe have produced the reaction which was predicted. The situation which has resulted is obviously one of great seriousness. The European community and the United States have become alarmed at the implications of Soviet policy, and are drawing closer together in mutual self-protection, but only in self-protection. It is for this reason that my Government desires me to outline to you with complete clarity and frankness the position of the United States Government. There should be no mistake about the determination of the United States to play its part in these cooperative movements for recovery and self-defense. The concern and the determination of the people of the United States have been intensified by the inexplicable hostility of the Soviet Government to the European Recovery Program-a measure which in its inception and subsequent development is so obviously only a measure of American assistance for reconstruction on a cooperative basis without menace or threat to anyone. The situation which has been produced by the actions of the Soviet Government or by political groups obviously under its control, and the natural and inevitable reaction on the part of other countries, including the United States, to these actions is obviously one of great seriousness. My Government has no idea what conclusions the Soviet Government has reached concerning the present attitude of the United States. It has noted that the picture of this attitude given by the Soviet press is dangerously distorted and erroneous. Whether, or in what degree, the members of the Soviet Government themselves believe this distorted version my Government has no means of estimating. For this reason I wish to make plain certain points on which my Government considers it extremely important that there be no misunderstanding at this time. 1. The policies of the United States Government in international questions have been made amply clear in recent months and weeks. They have the support of the overwhelming majority of the American people. They will continue to be vigorously and firmly prosecuted. It would be a grave error if others were to assume that domestic considerations, such as the forthcoming elections, would in any way weaken the determination of the United States to support what it believes to be right. The American people have always known how to separate domestic and foreign policy at the proper moment. Similarly, my Government is aware that Communist organizations here and there have been disseminating propaganda to the effect that a forthcoming economic crisis in the United States will soon produce a radical change in American policies. It is hoped that no one will be so foolish as to forfeit the chances of progress toward world stability for the sake of an economic prognostication which has been proven wrong time and time again. Even those who persist in believing such a prognostication must, at the very least, realize that an economic crisis would not affect in any way our basic productive capacity nor our concept of the basic factors underlying our foreign policy. It must be emphasized that the present state of world affairs involves issues which the people of the United States consider to be vital to United States national security and to world peace. No one should deceive himself as to the seriousness of United States policy with respect to these issues. 2. On the other hand, my Government wishes to make it unmistakably clear that the United States has no hostile or aggressive designs whatever with respect to the Soviet Union. Assertions to the contrary are falsehoods which can result only from complete misunderstanding or malicious motives. United States policies have been so devised that they cannot possibly affect adversely the interests of a Soviet Union which seeks to live at peace with its neighbors and to refrain from attempts to exercise undue influence, directly or indirectly, in their affairs. In fact, many of the elements of United States foreign policy to which the Soviet press takes such strong exception today would never have come into existence if it had not been necessary for the United States to aid other countries to defend their own political integrity from attempts, on the part of Communist minorities, to seize power and to establish regimes subservient to foreign interests. Should these attempts cease, the necessity for some of the manifestations of United States foreign policy, which are apparently unwelcome in Moscow, would cease with them. The present state of United States-Soviet relations is a source of grievous disappointment to the American people and to the United States Government. As far as we are concerned, it represents a painful and undesired alternative toward which we have been driven, step by step, by the pressure of Soviet and world Communist policy. We still do not despair by any means of a turn of events which will permit us to find the road to a decent and reasonable relationship between our two countries, with a fundamental relaxation of those tensions which today exercise so unhappy an influence on international society everywhere. As far as the United States is concerned, the door is always wide open for full discussion and the composing of our differences. My Government earnestly hopes that the members of the Soviet Government will not take lightly the position of the United States |