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Draft Statement for Possible Use by President Truman1

Hoover’s Suggestion To Reorganize the United Nations Without the Communist Nations

Ex-President Hoover has suggested that the “United Nations should be reorganized without the Communist nations in it.”

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If the President is asked about this suggestion he might respond as Department of State officials have already stated to the press:

While Mr. Hoover’s views on this matter, like the views of other leading citizens, will be studied, they do not represent the official United States position.

That position emphasizes the need to support and give life to the United Nations Charter provisions and to draw the Soviet Union into cooperation with the rest of the world, keeping open the channels of contact afforded by the United Nations.

The United Nations is based on more than an assumption that the big powers would cooperate to make the United Nations succeed. It is based on an obligation to do that. It is not the fault of the Charter that the Soviet bloc has refused to cooperate with the great United Nations majority.

  1. Drafted in the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, initially for possible use by the Secretary of State in case of questioning at a press conference. Telephoned to the White House by request, by the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson).