860H.00/1419½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The Ambassador of Yugoslavia called to see me at his request.
The Ambassador spoke at very great length and in considerable detail with regard to the continuing difficulties between the Serbs and the Croats in the United States. He said that the propaganda originally directed solely against General Mihajlović had now engulfed himself and that he was now the general target for attack from Communist sources within the United States. He said that an attempt was being made to depict him, the Ambassador, as a Nazi agent and as an Axis sympathizer. The Ambassador seemed to feel the attacks very deeply and he became quite emotional with regard to them.
He said he felt that he should let me know frankly that certain officials of the Office of War Information, and he mentioned in particular Mr. Cranston, not through any deliberate intent but largely because of lack of real knowledge of the situation, were lending themselves to this propaganda. He stated that as a result of it important elements among the Serb population in the United States were becoming considerably embittered and that the result of the present agitation was very definitely giving rise to a state of affairs where the Croats and Serbs were becoming rapidly involved in an open antagonism which boded no good for the interests of the two groups in the post-war period. He stated that the Yugoslav propaganda organization in the United States was almost entirely staffed by Croats, that the Yugoslav Minister of Finance in London was a Croat, and that certain other key positions in the Yugoslav Government were filled by Croats. He said that this situation made it difficult for the Serb elements to be able to defend their own interests.
I told the Ambassador that one of the things which this Government most desired to avoid was internecine disputes of this character, particularly within the United States at a time when it is obvious that all elements opposed to the Axis should be banded together in fighting [Page 827] the Axis, and not be engaged in fighting each other, I said that I would look into some of the facts he had brought to my attention with the desire to be as helpful as I could.