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Letter from Niebuhr to President Eisenhower
February 3, 1956
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Eisenhower:
I am writing in behalf of Jacob Mindel, one
of the communists who was convicted under the Smith
Act, whose Social Security payments have been stopped.
And the demand was made for the return of $2819.70
of payments previously made. Such an action on the
part of the Social Security authorities seems in line
with the action, since repudiated, but the Veterans' Administration in canceling the payments of a veteran
of suspected disloyalty. Can our nation really gain anything in majesty, in moral stature, by these small
acts of vindictiveness against dissenters, even if the dissenters were involved in a conspiracy? I hope that
your compassion will move you to correct this mistake.
Yours respectfully,
Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr Papers: Library of Congress, Manuscript Reading Room
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