Harry S. Truman 129 - Commencement Address at the University of California. Long before the war the United States established normal diplomatic and commercial relations with the Soviet Union. In doing so we demonstrated our belief that it was possible to get along with a nation whose economic and political system differs sharply from Ours. During the war we worked with the Soviet Union wholeheartedly in defeating the common enemy. In every way we could we tried to convince the Soviet Government that it was possible and necessary for allied unity to continue in the great task of establishing the peace. We hoped that the Soviet Union, secure in her own strength and doubly secure in respect of her allies, would accept full partnership in a peaceful world community. The record, however, is clear for all to read. The Soviet Government has rejected the invitation to participate, freely and on equal terms, in a great cooperative program for reconstruction of Europe. It has constantly maneuvered for delay and for propaganda effect in every international conference. It has used the veto excessively and unreasonably in the Security Council of the United Nations. It has boycotted the Little Assembly and several special United Nations commissions. It has used indirect aggression against a number of nations in Eastern Europe and extreme pressure against others in the Middle East. It has intervened in the internal affairs of many other countries by means of Communist parties directed from Moscow. The refusal of the Soviet Union to work with its wartime allies for world recovery and world peace is the most bitter disappointment of our time. The great issues of world peace and world recovery are sometimes portrayed as disputes solely between the United States and the Soviet Union. This is not the case. The fact is that not a single one of the major unsettled questions of the postwar world is primarily a disagreement between this country and the Soviet Union. We are not engaged in a struggle with the Soviet Union for any territory or for any economic gain. We have no hostile or aggressive designs against the Soviet Union or any other country. We are not waging a cold war. The cleavage that exists is not between the Soviet Union and the United States. It is between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world. The great questions at stake today affect not only the United States and the Soviet Union; they affect all nations. Whether it be the control of atomic energy, aggression against small nations, the German or the Austrian peace settlements, or any of the other questions, the majority of nations concerned have found a common basis for action. But in every case the majority agreement has been rejected, denounced, and openly attacked by the Soviet Union and her satellites whose policy she controls. Let me repeat: the division has not been between the United States and the Soviet Union, but between the Soviet Union and the free nations of the world. June 12, 1948 #ХунтаПідйом
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 05:03:26 +0000
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