859A.20/1
Draft of Message To Be Sent by President Roosevelt in Response to a Message From the Prime Minister of Iceland (Jonasson)40
I have received your message in which you have informed me that after careful consideration of all the circumstances, the Iceland Government, in view of the present state of affairs, admits that the sending to Iceland of United States troops to supplement and perhaps41 eventually to replace the present British forces there would be in accordance with the interests of Iceland and that, therefore, the Iceland Government is ready to entrust the protection of Iceland to the United States on the following considerations:
[Here follows repetition of the eight points set forth in draft message to be sent by the Prime Minister of Iceland to President Roosevelt, printed supra.]
You further state that this decision is made on the part of Iceland as an absolutely free and sovereign state and that it is considered as a matter of course that the United States will from the beginning recognize the legal status of Iceland, both states immediately exchanging diplomatic representatives.
I take pleasure in confirming to you hereby the conditions set forth in your communication now under acknowledgement are fully acceptable to the Government of the United States and that these conditions will be observed in the relations between the United States and Iceland. I may further say that it will give me pleasure to request of the Congress its agreement in order that diplomatic representatives may be exchanged between our two countries.
[Page 788]It is the announced policy of the Government of the United States to undertake to join with the other nations of the Western Hemisphere in the defense of the New World against any attempt at aggression. In the opinion of this Government, it is imperative that the integrity and independence of Iceland should be preserved because of the fact that any occupation of Iceland by a power whose only too clearly apparent plans for world conquest include the domination of the peoples of the New World would at once directly menace the security of the entire Western Hemisphere.
It is for that reason that in response to your message, the Government of the United States will send immediately troops to supplement and perhaps42 eventually to replace the British forces now there.
The steps so taken by the Government of the United States are taken in full recognition of the sovereignty and independence of Iceland and with the clear understanding that American military or naval forces sent to Iceland will in no wise interfere in the slightest degree with the internal and domestic affairs of the Icelandic people; and with the further understanding that immediately upon the termination of the present international emergency, all such military and naval forces will be at once withdrawn leaving the people of Iceland and their Government in full sovereign control of their own territory.
The people of Iceland hold a proud position among the democracies of the world, with a historic tradition of freedom and of individual liberty which is more than a thousand years old. It is, therefore, all the more appropriate that in response to your message, the Government of the United States, while undertaking this defensive measure for the preservation of the independence and security of the democracies of the New World should at the same time be afforded the privilege of cooperating in this manner with your Government in the defense of the historic democracy of Iceland.
I am communicating this message, for their information, to the Governments of all the other nations of the Western Hemisphere.
- Photostatic copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y. Marginal note on original: “Approved by the President by telephone 6:30 P.M. June 28—S[umner] W[elles]”.↩
- In the final text the word “perhaps” was omitted at the request of the Prime Minister of Iceland.↩
- In the final text the word “perhaps” was omitted at the request of the Prime Minister of Iceland.↩