AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
18 January 1991
Dear President Bush:
TO KILL AND MAIM PEOPLE IS IMMORAL!
WAR IS IMMORAL!
As human beings, we have the duty to strive to decrease the amount of human suffering.
WAR CAUSES HUMAN SUFFERING!
The war in the Middle East is getting out of hand. It may become a great war,
fought not only with high explosives but also with poison gas, bacteria, and nuclear
weapons. It may liberate worldwide radioactive fallout, damaging the whole human race.
YOU CAN AVERT THIS CATASTROPHE!
CANCEL THE ULTIMATUMS!
INITIATE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN!
BEGIN DISCUSSION WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN AND OTHER NATIONAL LEADERS ON HOW TO SOLVE THE
GREAT WORLD PROBLEMS.
Together with millions of other human beings, I urge that you and the United
States of America take the lead along the path toward peace and morality.
FIGHT AGAINST THE IMMORALITY AND BARBARISM OF WAR!
STOP MILITARY ACTIONS!
INITIATE NEGOTIATIONS!
COOPERATE WITH ALL NATIONS IN DISCUSSIONS OF HOW TO SOLVE WORLD PROBLEMS WITHOUT RESORTING
TO WAR!
Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 for his scientific work
and the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962 for his effort to ban the atmospheric testing of
nuclear weapons. In the late 1940s he worked with Albert Einstein to educate people
about nuclear weapons and to prevent their further use in war after Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. He is now carrying out scientific and medical research at the Linus Pauling
Institute of Science and Medicine, 440 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306.
