Hopkins Papers
The Chinese Foreign Minister (Soong) to the President’s Special Assistant (Hopkins)
Dear Harry: On the basis of my conversation with the President this morning,1 I am sending a draft of my telegram to the Generalissimo for the President’s approval, as it is important that there be no misunderstanding in so vital a matter.
I shall be grateful if you could lay it before the President as soon as possible, and give me his reply.
Yours sincerely,
- No other record of the Roosevelt-Soong conversation has been found.↩
- The text of this message was read by Marshall to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at their meeting on the morning of May 19, 1943.↩
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Numbered paragraph 5 of the signed original copy of this draft letter, as it appears in the Hopkins Papers, is crossed out and covered over by the following insert:
“5. The President told me that it is the position of the United States that Anakim will be undertaken this fall in conjunction with the British. Definite plans for this project are now being considered from the viewpoint of the allotment of tonnage and special equipment, preliminary to detailed plans for each phase of the operation, which will be communicated to me for your consideration as they are prepared.”
The word “fall” in the first sentence is crossed out and replaced by the word “winter” in Roosevelt’s writing. What appears to be Roosevelt’s handwritten “OK” appears in the margin of the insert. This insert appears to be the same one prepared by Marshall and referred to in his memorandum of May 1943, to Hopkins, infra.
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