Was Einstein a great diplomat?

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Albert Einstein, undoubtedly the greatest scientist the world ever produced, had diplomatic skills too, a new set of letters has revealed. The letters, penned by Einstein, contain his views on how to deal with a belligerent Soviet Union (now Russia) after World War II—all the four mails are to go under the hammer at an auction house in London later this week.

“Better to let Russia see that there is nothing to be achieved by aggression but there are advantages in joining (a world government): then the Russian regime’s attitude will probably change and they will take part without compulsion,” Einstein wrote to his correspondent Walter Marseille in 1948.

Psychoanalyst Marseille, who promoted the idea of a world government in a paper titled 'A Method to Enforce World Peace', had dispatched it to the scientist for his view.

In a later missive, Einstein again advocated a diplomatic approach: “The attitude of the Russians, it seems to me, clearly shows that they are deeply concerned about the military industrial situation, and that they would be prepared to make considerable concessions if some degree of relaxation was permitted.” In a third letter he wrote to Marseille: “In my view it is much better, both morally and practically, to attempt to bring about a state of affairs in which the Russians, out of pure self interest, find it preferable to give up their separatist position.”