740.0011 European War 1939/12520: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:30 p.m.]
2574. Your 1764, June 24, 7 p.m.91 The note of the German Foreign Office to the Soviet Government which was given to the press and broadcast here 6 a.m., June 22, and is believed to have been handed by the German Ambassador [in] Moscow to Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov early the same morning contained no explicit declaration of war but concluded after reciting Germany’s grievances with the following statements:
“The Soviet Government has thereby betrayed and violated the treaties and agreements with Germany (…)92 Bolshevist Moscow is on the verge of attacking National Socialist Germany in the rear in its struggle for existence. Germany is not prepared to remain inactive in view of this serious threat to its eastern frontier. The Fuehrer has therefore now issued the order to the German armed forces to meet this threat with all the means at their disposal. In the coming struggle the German people realize that they are not only protecting their homeland but that it is their mission to save the whole civilized world from the deadly dangers of Bolshevism and through maintaining free the road to true social advancement in Europe.”
A printed copy of this note which the Embassy just received from the German Foreign Office bears the date at the close “Berlin, June 21, 1941.”
The above is in accordance with the past practice of the German Government of delivering a note or making a public pronouncement [Page 155] simultaneously with or even subsequent to the opening of hostilities informing the attacked party and the world at large of reasons and excuses for Germany’s action. These documents almost uniformly accuse the other party of breaking its treaties or agreements with Germany and of violating its neutrality. They make it clear that Germany has resorted to force without a formal declaration of war. The military reason for not declaring war in advance of the opening of hostilities is obviously to gain the initial advantage of surprise to which the German press subsequently refers as a stroke of genius by Hitler. The political reason is more obscure but it is noteworthy that German propaganda constantly insists that the present war was thrust upon the German people and seeks to support this argument by pointing to the declarations of war by Great Britain and France. It is believed that the German Government desires to avoid the onus of formally declaring war, both in view of the Kellogg Pact,93 and in order to fasten war guilt on its enemies for posterity in any German dictated peace.
- Not printed; it inquired whether the German Government had issued a formal proclamation of war against the Soviet Union.↩
- Omission indicated in the original telegram.↩
- Treaty for the Renunciation of War signed at Paris, August 27, 1928, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 153.↩