MSS052_letter_19820622.jpg

extracted text

Pres. Ronald Reagan
White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President,

Your speech to the United Nations was so divisive that the few positive overatures[sic] you made were rendered worthless, especially when you did not meet the challenge of Mr. Brezhnev to deny the first use of nuclear bombs.

A person capable of leading a nation - probably the world - into a path of peaceful endeavor should have more sensitivity than to castigate another member of the U.N. before that body. You, Mr. President, and Lyndon Johnson are the only 2 presidents in my memory with such a lack of diplomacy.

Russia's takeover of Czechoslovakia is deplorable (they would alibi that they are trying to put a buffer between themselves and a nation which has violated their border - Germany. We would say that we devastated Vietnam in order to save it. Has either a clean record to crow about? If still unconvinced, what about Cambodia? Against the advice of our native-language speaking diplomats there that the U.S. should stay out of Asia (and were forced into exile for telling the truth), during Prince Sihanouk's vacation from Cambodia, Nixon ordered bombing of that beautiful little country then lied about it. Are we proud of that? Can we hold ourselves up as models of behavior in accusing other nations?

You castigate Russia for manufacturing chemical death - as well you might if they are doing it, EXCEPT: we are making nerve gas in Arkansas this moment, a thing terrifying to me because I watched my brother die by inches from having been mustard-gassed by our now friends - the Germans - in WW I.

I am trying to show you that neither the U.S. nor Russia has a history that would make of it a model. If we really work toward world peace. blotting out propaganda and our desire for profits for munitions manufacturers, we will work toward spending our tax dollars for: food, transportation, education, environment and other NEEDED commodities which would employ the now unemployed.

So -- I beg of you, take a battery of psychological measures and psychological counseling. I think you are paranoid. I think the Russian hierarchy is paranoid (with some justification since bombs have rained on them). TOO MUCH IS AT STAKE FOR WORLD CITIZENS TO ACCEPT THE INSANITY OF CONFRONTATION.

THE WAY TO HANDLE AN ENEMY IS TO MAKE OF HIM A FRIEND.

I am sincere,

(Ms.) Cordye Hall, [address redacted]

Copies to: Charles Percy
Howard Baker
John Tower
George Shultz
Casper Weinberger
Tip O'Neil
Jim Wright
Jim Mattox
Martin Frost
Jeane Kirkpatrick
and others