Letter from Linus Pauling to Chet Holifield. November 4, 1957. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 3 pp.  View Transcript

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Activity Listings

• Letter from Dr. Claude B. Hutchison, Vice-President & Dean of the College of Agriculture Emeritus, University of California to LP RE: Notifies him that he has suggested that the University of Kentucky award Dr. Walter Kelley, a soil scientist from the University of California, an honorary degree. Requests that if LP agrees he write a recommendation to the president of the University, Fank A. Dickey. Encloses a biography of Dr. Kelley. [Letter from LP to President Dickey November 12, 1957, Letter from President Dickey to LP November 16, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (K: Correspondence, 1957), #201.1]
• Letter from Esther Lewin, Committee Against Nuclear Explosions, to LP RE: Apologizes to LP for Congressman Holifield's speech and that it was not the speech he said he would deliver. Thanks him for coming and delivering his speech. [Letter from LP to Lewin October 7, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s2.9]
• Letter from LP to Arthur W. Adamson, Professor of Chemistry, USC RE: Thanks Dr. Adamson for asking him to address the Chemistry Research Conference but he is unable to set a specific date at that time. [Letter from Dr. Adamson to LP October 22, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (A: Correspondence, 1957), #12.23]
• Letter from LP to Chet Holifield, Congressman, RE: Argues against several points of Holifield's speech, given during the Nov. 3 protest meeting and expresses his displeasure that some of Holifield's statements were misleading and a personal attack on LP. [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s2.9]
• Letter from LP to Chet Holifield, Congressman. [Letter from Congressman Holifield to LP November 11, 1957, Letter from LP to Congressman Holifield November 18, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Holifield, Chet, 1957-1961), #162.2]

  4 November 1957

  Congressman Chet Holifield

  Congressional Office Building

  Washington 25, D.C.

  Dear Mr. Holifield:

  I am writing to express to you my objection to some of the statements that you made at the meeting at the Van Nuys High School Football Field, and to ask you to answer some questions.

  When I was asked to appear on the program with you at the meeting, I hesitated for some time. On 1 October I received a letter, repeating the invitation, and stating that the sponsors of the meeting included the 22nd Congressional District Democratic Council, the 41st Assembly District Democratic Council, the 42nd Assembly District Democratic Council, the Federation of American Scientists, the Southern California Friends Committee on Legislation, and other organizations. I have been a strong supporter of the Democratic Party for many years, and in particular I have felt admiration for the stand that you have taken. I thought that I might be doing a valuable service to you and to the Democratic Party by participating in the meeting.

  In the letter of 1 October inviting us to speak there was made the statement that you would be the first speaker, and that I would follow you. I thought that you might be interested to know what I would say, and I had my speech typewritten, with a copy available to you if you requested it. I asked that information be given me about your address, in order that I might prepare my talk in such a way as to complement yours. However, I did not receive any information about your address.

  As you will see from the enclosed copy of a letter I have written to Mr. Leonard Shane, I was taken by surprise when I was introduced at the meeting. The introduction of me rather than you at the beginning of the meeting prevented me from learning what you were planning to say. I feel strongly that it was improper for the chairman of the meeting to have introduced me as the first speaker after I had been told that I would be the second speaker.

  There are some points about your talk that I wish to ask you about.

  First, in your speech you stated that all of the scientists who testified before your committee said that there was no proof that background radiation causes genetic or somatic damage to human beings. After the meeting I mentioned this point to you and said that I thought that it was wrong inasmuch as all of the geneticists who contributed to the national Academy of Sciences Report and who testified before your committee had stated that it was their belief that the background radiation causes genetic damage. In the summary analysis of the hearings before your committee, on page 5 there occurs the statement "There was general agreement that any amount of radiation, no matter how small the dose, increases the rate of genetic mutation (change) in a population." Your reply to my criticism was that you had simply said that the scientists stated that it had not been proved that background radiation causes genetic damage. I said that you were quibbling; that it was improper for you to make the statement that this had not been proved without also making the statement that every geneticist believes that in fast background radiation causes mutations in human beings, in the same way as it is known to cause mutations in animals. I said that, like Dr. Libby, you were making a statement that, although true, gives the hearers exactly the wrong idea as to what scientists believe and have testified. I am sure that many members of the audience thought that your statement contradicted my statement that radiation causes genetic damage, whereas in fact, as you point out, the statement does not contradict it, even though it appears to do so.

  I do not know whether you wish to discuss the question of why you included this misleading statement, the truth but not the whole truth, phrased in such a way as to be misleading, in your speech. If you care to give me an explanation, I should be pleased to have it.

  Second, I wish to express an objection to the remarks that you made that I interpreted as a personal attack on me. So far as I can remember you did not mention me by name in your talk. However, you made a statement about well-meaning scientists with their heads in the clouds, who try to get the United States to disarm unilaterally, and who are guilty of intentional exaggeration of the danger of nuclear tests. You continued with a statement which is quoted in the Los Angeles Times in the following way: "For those who wilfully [sic] advocate the Soviet position of bomb-test cessation without adequate inspection and detection systems to insure good-faith compliance, I can have only contempt - the contempt of a free man in a free nation for traitors who live in a free society and who for reasons best known to themselves wish to consign free men to totalitarian slavery."

  You did not say that this attack was not directed at me, and it seemed to me that in fact it was; a similar feeling was expressed by auditors, such as Miss Catherine Cory, Director of the Southern California Friends Committee on Legislation.

  Your statements at this meeting were in my opinion intentionally misleading, in that an auditor who had not been paying very much attention to my talk, or whose memory was not good, might not have noticed or remembered that I advocated that there be effective steps taken to stop all bomb testing. I said that the American bomb tests, the Russian bomb tests, and the British bomb tests are equally harmful. Nowhere in my speech did I say or intimate that I advocated a unilateral action by the United States - I advocated only an effective international agreement, which you said also that you advocated. At no time in the past have I advocated a unilateral disarmament by the United States.

  I should like to ask you to tell me why you confused the issue of an effective international agreement to stop all bomb tests by introducing your statements about those who wilfully [sic] advocate unilateral disarmament by the United States.

  I feel that it would have been proper and courteous for you to have disassociated me from the group that you were criticizing. May I ask if you know any scientist who has advocated unilateral disarmament for the United States? Is there really an object of your critical statement?

  Sincerely yours,

  Linus Pauling:W

• Letter from LP to Dr. A. D. Wadsley, c/o Australian Scientific Liaison Office, RE: Says that he expects to be in Pasadena on November 26th, but explains that because the 28th is Thanksgiving, that he will be gone and the Institute will be closed for the rest of the week. Says that he hopes Wadsley will be able to make it to the laboratory sometime on Tuesday. [Letter from Wadsley to LP, October 25, 1957] [Letter from Wadsley to LP, November 15, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (W: Correspondence, 1953-1959.), Box #444, Folder #444.5]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Everett M. Hafner, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester RE: Thanks him for the invitation to speak before the Sigma Xi chapter at the University but declines because he has just returned from a trip to the East and isn't going back for awhile. [Letter from Dr. Hafner to LP October 28, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (H: Correspondence, 1957), #167.2]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Herman J. Getzoff, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, RE: Thanks Getzoff for the tickets to their annual dinner on November 26th, but says that he and AHP can not attend because they will be in the east at that time. Returns the two tickets. [Letter from Getzoff to LP, October 29, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (W: Organizational Correspondence. (Wa - Wo)), Box #441, Folder #441.4]
• Letter from LP to Dr. Lloyd M. Dunn, Program Chair, International Council for Exceptional Children RE: Thanks him for the invitation to speak at the Council's conference but declines on account of an already full schedule for 1958. [Letter from Dr. Dunn to LP October 25, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (D: Correspondence, 1957), #98.22]
• Letter from LP to Jane Lounsbury, American Cancer Society, RE: Encloses a statement of the expenses he incurred in connection with the annual American Cancer Society meeting, as she requested. Writes that it was a pleasure to participate in the program. [Letter from Lounsbury to LP October 14, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s2.4]
• Letter from LP to Joe B. Routh RE: LP says they are making progress in their research but does not have any significant discoveries to report. Briefly describes his research. [Letter from Routh to LP October 28, 1957] [Filed under LP Science: Orthomolecular Medicine and Mental Health: Materials re: Ford Foundation grants for the study of mental disorders, 1955-1956: Box #11.089, Folder 89.7]
• Letter from LP to Leonard Shane RE: Expresses his dissatisfaction with the protest meeting against nuclear testing on Nov. 3 and that he was informed that he would be speaking after Congressman Holifield and when their timeslots were switched, Holifield contradicted one of his statements. [Letter from Shane to LP November 7, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s2.9]
• Letter from LP to Professor George Gamow, Department of Physics, University of Colorado RE: Apologizes for not sending a picture of him and the alpha-helix molecule earlier and suggests that he use the real picture instead of the composite. [Letter from Professor Gamow to LP October 26, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Gamow, George, 1953, 1957, 1962), #136.4]
• Letter from LP to R.E. Daniels, Plant Manager, Western Urn Mfg. Corp. RE: Declines the research project into the formation of alkali on the coffee urns but recommends that he contact a commercial research chemist instead. [Letter from Mr. Daniels to LP October 22, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (D: Correspondence, 1957), #98.22]
• Letter from LP to Robert W. McEwen, Hamilton College, RE: Thanks McEwen for the check and writes that he had a very good time at Hamilton College. [Letter from McEwen to LP October 29, 1957] [Filed under LP Speeches: 1957s2.7]
• Letter from LP to unknown recipient, RE: LP thanks the Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic and Madame Zaoubin for the invitation to attend the Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Greta October Socialist Revolution. Regrets that he will not be able to attend because he will be in the eastern part of the country at that time. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (U: Correspondence, 1936-1970), Box #421, Folder #421.15]
• Letter from Newton Freire-Maia to LP RE: Informs LP that he just received the appeal. Says he will sign it and that he is trying to get more signatures. Handwritten notes, "Brazil" and "27." [Letter from Freire-Maia to LP November 25, 1957] [Filed under LP Safe Contents, Drawer 3 Folder 3.004]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Dr. Pauling Calls for A-Test Ban," Pasadena (California) Independent, November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.58]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Dr. Pauling Calls for A-Test Ban," Pasadena (California) Star-News, November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.58]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Pauling Urges Realistic View of Nuclear Perils," Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.59]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Phillips Visitor Pauling Talks On '...Molecules and Disease,'", Publication Unknown, Haverford (Pennsylvania), November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.57]
• Newspaper Clipping: "Super-Bomb Perils Population — Pauling," Valley Times, November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.58]
• Newspaper Clipping: "U.S. Diplomats Behind Times," Says Pauling," Los Angeles Examiner, November 4, 1957. [Filed under LP Biographical: (LP Scrapbooks, 1956-1960), Box #6.007, Folder #7.58]
• Note from Beatrice Wulf to LP RE: Notifies him that Dr. R.J. Gillepsie from University College visited the lab today and had a message from Peter, that LP can give the vaccine for him and his family to Dr. Gillepsie if LP wants to. [Letter from LP to Dr. Gillepsie November 11, 1957] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (G: Correspondence, 1957), #141.1]
• Publication: "I.F. Stone's Weekly." [Filed under LP Peace: (Non-Pauling Peace Materials: Publications and Newsletters, Ai-Ne), Box #8.007, Folder #7.9]