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Dear Friends in the Mid-West:

I send this message at the invitation of Mr. Hughston McBain, a good friend of the work we atomic scientists are carrying forward. This is the Holiday season, but over large sections of the earth there will be no holiday for millions of men, women and children. For the debris of World War II and the spectre of another of another World War have blighted man's joy in life. All about us we see the wreckage of great hopes which man-kind held for the building of peace. The gulf between East and West which men of good will have worked to close is widening daily. Some people believe that no reconciliation is possible and that another World War must decide the issue; we scientists reply that it is no longer possible to decide any issue by such means --an atomic war will bring no real decision but only unprecendented death and devastation on both sides. Such a time in history breeds defeatism and despair. But there are those among us who believe that man has within him the capacity to meet and overcome even the great tests of our times. What me must not lose, or we lose all, is our willingness to seek the truth and our courage to act upon the truth. If we maintain these, we cannot despair. We scientists believe upon ample evidence that the time of decision is upon us --that what we do or fail to do within the next fewe years will determine the fate of our civilisation. We call for a higher realism which recognizes that our fate is joined with that of our fellowmen throughout the world. Great ideas may often be expressed in very simple words. In the shadow of the atomic bomb it has become apparent that all men are brothers. If we recognise this as truth and act upon this recognition, mankind may go forward to a higher plane of human development. If the angry passions of a nationalistic world engulf us further, we are doomed. The task of the scientists, as we conceive it , is untiringly to explain these truths, so that the American people will understand all that is at stake. we believe that with such understanding , the American people will choose from among many paths to reach a peaceful solution and that they will move toward such a solution and not toward war. And we believe that, in the long run, security for all nations demands a supra-national solution. Each of us, whether as scientists who worked to release atomic energy, or as citizens of the nation that applied the knowledge , stands accountable for the use we make of this tremendous new force. To our generation has come the possibility of making the most fateful decision in the recorded history of the human race. By an act of the collective will, we can ensure that this great and painful achievement of man's intellect, instead of turning upon humanity, may be secured for the benefit of future generations. I believe that mankind, capable of reason, restraint and courage, will choose this path of peace.