Foreign Relations of the United States, Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

President Roosevelt to Marshal Stalin ¹

secret
operational priority

[Washington,] 9 September 1943.

From the President to Marshal Stalin personal and secret.

Thank you for your message² received today.

1. I agree on the immediate setting up of the Military-Political Commission but I think Algiers better than Sicily on account of communications and, therefore, suggest that they meet in Algiers on Tuesday, September twenty-first. They will be given full information in regard to progress of current and future negotiations but, of course, should not have plenary powers. Such authority would, of course, have to be referred to their Governments before final action.

I am entirely willing to have a French representative on this Commission. It is important to all of us that the secrecy of all their deliberations be fully maintained.³

2. In regard to the meeting of our three representatives, I will cheerfully agree that the place of meeting be Moscow and the date the beginning of October—say Monday, the fourth. I will send you in two or three days a suggested informal list of subjects to be discussed, but I think the three members should feel free, after becoming acquainted with each other, to discuss any other matters which may come up.”⁴

3. I am delighted with your willingness to go along with the third suggestion, and the time about the end of November is all right. I fully understand that military events might alter the situation for you or for Mr. Churchill or myself. Meanwhile, we can go ahead on that basis. Personally, my only hesitation is the place but only because it is a bit further away from Washington than I had counted on. My Congress will be in session at that time and, under our Constitution, I must act on legislation within ten days. In other words, I must receive documents and return them to the Congress within ten days and Teheran makes this rather a grave risk if the flying weather is bad. If the Azores route is not available, it means going by way of Brazil and across the South Atlantic Ocean. For these reasons I hope that you will consider some part of Egypt, which is also a neutral state and where every arrangement can be made for our convenience.⁵

4. I really feel that the three of us are making real headway.

Roosevelt

1. Sent to the United States Naval Attaché, Moscow, via Navy channels. For Churchill’s parallel message to Stalin, dated September 10, 1943, see Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. i, pp. 159–161; Churchill, Closing the Ring, pp. 281–282. Stalin’s reply to these parallel messages, addressed to Roosevelt and Churchill jointly on September 12, 1943, did not reach the addressees until after the conclusion of their conversations at Hyde Park on September 12, and is therefore outside the scope of this volume. See Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. i, pp. 162–163; vol. ii, pp. 93–94; Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, pp. 520, 786; Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p. 25.
2. Supra.
3. For further correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, pp. 786 ff.
4. For further correspondence on this subject, see ibid., pp. 521 ff.
5. For further correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, pp. 25 ff.