BRACERS Record Detail for 30909
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
"I should say that a pacifist is someone who completely rejects the use of force, as a matter of principle. I am myself not a pacifist, as I consider that in some circumstances force is justifiable. I think we should be careful to distinguish between pacifists and those who in particular circumstances feel force to be wrong. We should not consider a man who refused on political grounds to serve in the Nazi army a pacifist, nor a man who today did not support an immediate declaration of war by the United States on Cuba. Similarly, although I was a conscientious objector to military service in the first world war, I do not feel that this made me a pacifist."
