Editorial Note
No official record of this meeting has been found. President Beneš was on a wartime visit to the United States and Canada during May and early June 1943. According to the brief account of this meeting in Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Beneš: From Munich to New War and New Victory (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1954), p. 187, Beneš had been invited to attend so that he could explain to Roosevelt and Churchill his views on the partition of Germany. Beneš also set forth his views regarding the necessity to try German war criminals, reeducate the German people, decentralize the German administration, and substantially change the German social structure. According [Page 34] to a summary of a report to the Czechoslovak State Coimcil on Beneš’ conversations in Washington, a copy of which was transmitted to the Department of State as an enclosure to despatch 61, May 28, 1943, from the Ambassador to the Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London (neither printed), numerous questions of European politics as well as problems of future international organization and the guaranteeing of peace and security were discussed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Beneš at this meeting.
For Beneš’ own description of his other meetings with Roosevelt and other American officials during his Washington visit, see Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Beneš, pp. 180–187 and 193–196. For the memorandum by the Secretary of State of a conversation with Beneš on May 18, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. III, p. 529.