Dear Mr. Biggs: I was much moved by your recent letter to me, and can well appreciate from it the serious thought and reflection you are giving to problems affecting our country.1 The points you raised (some not entirely clear to me) included three that especially impressed me. Some of them clearly have significance to our free society and form of government.
I refer to your comments that normal confidence and feeling of security can be easily shaken in these times; your implied request that I undertake to stabilize the spirit of our population, and your conviction that if the government and its leaders know the nation’s goals and missions and state the way they should be achieved, those leaders could be sure of the backing of our people.2
Concerning these comments I have several observations.
I think it is undeniably true that the activities of our government have tended to become much more complex, impersonal and remote from the individual, with consequent loss in simplicity, direct human contact and clear guidance by higher authority I believe you to be urging. In good part this situation is inherent in life in the mid-twentieth century--in a highly developed economy and a highly complex society such as our own. The complexity is reflected in the need to qualify (to "hedge" is the term you use) many of our policies, which means simply to give careful thought to the possibility that what we do in one field may have unacceptable impact in another.3 To reduce complexity I believe it essential to keep governmental activities as close as possible to the people concerned. I have frequently stressed the need for these functions to be performed at local and state level rather than at the Federal.4 Incidentally, I assure you that I have tried always to avoid creating any doubt in anyone’s mind as to my own goals and convictions. If I have failed in this respect, it has been purely an error of an expression and not one of purpose.
Another part of the difficulty undoubtedly comes from the high degree of confusion and uncertainty on major national problems that seems to exist today. As you know, for four years our government has been a divided government, with the Administration confronted by a Congress controlled by the opposition--and the two working, if not in opposition, at least at cross purposes much of the time. An example is the sparring that seems to go on constantly over our defense situation--and specifically over our missile position. It is difficult indeed to maintain a reasoned and accurately informed understanding of our defense situation on the part of our citizenry when many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness except as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resort to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.5
Even if this division in the government did not exist, I doubt that citizens like yourself could ever, under our democratic system, be provided with the universal degree of certainty, the confidence in their understanding of our problems, and the clear guidance from higher authority that you believe needed. Such unity is not only logical but indeed indispensable in a successful military organization, but in a democracy debate is the breath of life.6 This is to me what Lincoln meant by government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
The mental stress and burden which this form of government imposes has been particularly well recognized in a little book about which I have spoken on several occasions. It is "The True Believer," by Eric Hoffer; you might find it of interest. In it, he points out that dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems--freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions.7
But while this responsibility is a taxing one to a free people it is their great strength as well--from millions of individual free minds come new ideas, new adjustments to emerging problems, and tremendous vigor, vitality and progress.
One of my own major aims and efforts has been to assist in every way open to me in giving our people a better understanding of the great issues that face our country today--some of them indeed issues of life and death. Through being better informed, they can best gain greater assurance regarding our nation’s situation and participate in establishing policies and programs which they think to be sound and right. The quest for certainty is at best, however, a long and arduous one. While complete success will always elude us, still it is a quest which is vital to self-government and to our way of life as free men.
May I end by saying how stimulating I found your letter and the thoughts it evoked, and how much I admire your fortitude in pondering these problems despite your deep personal adversity. My best wishes are with you in your grave illness. Sincerely
