Open letter from Cordye Hall to President Ronald Reagan, June 22, 1982

Open letter from Cordye Hall to President Ronald Reagan, June 22, 1982

Hall, Cordye; Reagan, Ronald Wilson, 1911-2004; Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich, 1906-1982; Cold War; Russia; Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973

Cordye Hall writes an open letter to President Ronald Reagan after a recent speech to the U.N. Hall believes the president was lacking in diplomacy and that America has no right to condemn Russia in light of American actions abroad and at home. Ends by suggesting that the president should submit his self to a "battery of psychological measures and psychological counseling" and that he is "paranoid."

Hall, Cordye

6/22/1982

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Letters

MSS052_letter_19820622

Woman's Collection, Texas Woman's University, P.O. Box 425528, Denton, TX 76204.

An open letter to Pres. Ronald Reagan 6/22/82
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 you made were rendered worthless, especially when you did not meet the challenge of Mr. Brezhnev to deny 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 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 when lied about it. Are we proud of that? Can we hold ourselves up as models of behavior in accusing other nations?
You castigate Russia from 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 mustard-gassed by our now friends - the Germans, in WWI.
You refer to broken treaties. That deserves some research; however the U.S. has broken treaties with the American Indians time and again.
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 peach, blotting our 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 pf 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 HIM A FRIEND.
I am sincere
(Ms.) Cordye Hall
Copies to:
Charles Percy
Howard Baker
John Turner Jim Mattox
George Shultz Martin Frost
Casper Weinberger Jeane Kirkpatrick
Tip O’Neil and others
Jim Wright

paper, typed