The three letters to the world by Dr. Albert Schweitzer reproduced on this website - the scripts, we believe, of his addresses on Radio Oslo on the same dates - are reproduced from copies distributed to the press in advance of the radio broadcasts. Specifically, they are reproduced from a copy sent to an unidentified Tuscon, Arizona newspaper by the "Albert Schweitzer Fellowship" of New York. How they came to be preserved for posterity is a remarkable tale of late 1950's politics at it's finest.
The (unknown) editor and publisher of the (unknown) Tucson newspaper was a friend of one Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, at the time the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Believing the Admiral might have an interest in the letters - which were sent to the newspaper several days ahead of their official release - he sent them, or a copy, to the Admiral.
Admiral Strauss evidently did not appreciate Schweitzer's views on nonproliferation, and the, shall we say, honesty of governments regarding the safety of nuclear testing. He in turn phoned J. Edgar Hoover, then Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In Hoover's words, as recorded for posterity in an inter-departmental memo dated May 2nd, 1958 (serial 62-104709-1), "Admiral Strauss thought this material came perilously close to influencing United States policy and he was wondering if this outfit claimed tax exemption." Hoover promised he would "have a check made of their background" and also "make a check of their income tax returns" if Strauss would send a copy of the letters to Hoover, which Strauss promptly did. The concluding line of Admiral Strauss' cover letter to Hoover (serial 62-104709-3) is particularly telling: "Your concluding words warmed my heart."
It's unclear whatever became of the background and tax checks on the Fellowship, but this one well-travelled copy of Schweitzer's letters has been preserved for posterity in the Bureau's files ever since, only released a year or so ago in response to a FOIA request.
Accompanying the letters is a "Note to News Desks", which explains something of the background of these statements. It notes the statements were originally written in German, and that a separate translation into English had been made for the media in Great Britain. As such, we believe that these statements, as presented here, are in essence the first English-language draft of what would later that year be published as Peace or Atomic War?, and most likely much closer in language to the text of the actual speeches broadcast over Radio Oslo than the clearly updated and revised versions in the book.
The original papers mailed to the newspaper, then given to Admiral Strauss, and eventually mailed to Director Hoover himself appear to have been typed on legal-sized paper; to fit in the Bureau's letter-sized files, each sheet was later torn in two. Age, or perhaps sloppy photocopying, have taken their toll, and in a handful of stops there appear to be one or more sentances missing; such locations have been noted in the text. Aside from these notes, the statements are reproduced accurately from (this copy of) the originals.
Dr. Schweitzer himself didn't have much of a FBI file; in fact, he doesn't appear to have had a file of his own, just a small number of "see references", as the Bureau terms them, in other files. Other than the thirty-some pages of these statements, there are a few newspaper clippings related to them, many labelled "fallout", all unserialized as part of file 62-104057-A. He is referenced in passing in relation to the Katanga conflict in Africa in a 1963 letter from the Cleveland Field Office (62-108487-1). One final document of uncertain provenance - apparently an overseas cable - notes "Lamberne -- sources at the jungle hospital of Dr. Albert Schweitzer said the 90-year-old humanitarian's condition had worsened. A heart specialist from California was reported to have arrived at the hospital. Schweitzer was said to have developed serious respiratory trouble during the night, although he emerged later from his coma." (record 109-12-211-7239.) Dr. Schweitzer died in Lambarene, Gabon, on the 4th of September, 1965.
The '62' prefix on these FBI records denotes a category of miscellaneous files, including "administrative inquiries", of which we presume this was one. The 109 prefix on the last item denotes "foreign political matters", a category of records about which not particularly much is known.
Best known today for his theological and philosophical works, Schweitzer's anti-nuclear stance of the 1950s and 1960s is all but forgotten today. The first statement contains much commentary on nuclear technology, and the second much on politics and militarization; the third and final statement is considerably more typical of Schweitzer's work as a whole, and here, reproduced as close to the original version as possible, a fitting eulogy to a man who gave much to the world.
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