BR TO ALBERT EINSTEIN, 24 NOV. 1947
BRACERS 76414. ALS(X). Hebrew University of Jerusalem. SLBR 2: #479
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

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27 Dorset House
Gloucester Place
N.W.1.
Nov. 24, 1947

Dear Einstein

Thank you for your letter of Nov. 19.1 I wish with all my heart that I could agree to the alterations you suggest.2 But your suggestions spring from an opinion different from mine, and if I agreed, the article would no longer say what I believe. I have no hope of reasonableness in the Soviet Government; I think the only hope of peace (and that a slender one) lies in frightening Russia. I favoured appeasement before 1939, wrongly, as I now think; I do not want to repeat the same mistake.

In particular:

A. I only advocated “some such scheme” as that of the Lilienthal Report;3 I should be glad to see any emendation that did not make it ineffective, but inspection is essential.

B. I did not say that Russia is preparing an aggressive war; what I said implied rather that Russia expects to have to wage a defensive war. The line of action is the same in either case.

C. I think it essential that America should assume leadership; without a leader nothing gets done, and without U.S. leadership all minor Powers will be too frightened to do anything.

I have no objection to suggested changes as regards D and F.

Generally: I think it useless to make any attempt whatever to conciliate Russia. The hope of achieving anything by this method seems to me “wishful thinking”.

I came to my present view of the Soviet Government when I went to Russia in 1920; all that has happened since has made me feel more certain that I was right.

The work of the Atomic Scientists of America seems to me most admirable,4 and I am the more sorry that I cannot collaborate in this matter.

All best wishes.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

  your letter of Nov. 19 The typed carbon of Einstein’s letter in his archives is dated 15 Nov. (record 55350); the letter was posted on the 19th.

• 2

  I wish … I could agree to the alterations you suggest. To Russell’s “Still Time for Good Sense”, ’47, the Magazine of the Year, 1, no. 9 (Nov. 1947): 56–63 (B&R C47.12; 74b in Collected Papers 24). Einstein included tear-sheets of the article lettered according to the points he raises in his letter.

• 3

  Lilienthal Report A 1946 report to President Truman by David Lilienthal, later the first chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission, and Dean Acheson, later Truman’s Secretary of State, which proposed placing atomic energy under the control of an international Atomic Development Agency. Details for implementing the proposals were left to subsequent negotiations. The Baruch Plan, which America officially proposed in June 1946, was based on the report, but added many proposals Russia found objectionable, notably one to enforce the plan by compulsory inspection with “swift and sure” punishment for violations, and the A.D.A. immune to the UN Security Council’s veto. The UN AEC voted on the Baruch Plan on 30 December 1947, but failed to reach the required unanimity.

• 4

  The work of the Atomic Scientists of America seems to me most admirable This was the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, an organization founded in 1946 with which Einstein was closely associated. Its purpose was to inform the public about atomic energy and to formulate policies for its peaceful use. It published the influential Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.