Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Editorial Note

From the documents in Chapter I it is clear that the principal purpose of the conferences at Cairo and Tehran was to coordinate and strengthen the war effort of the United Nations. During the months of arranging for these conferences it was understood that President Roosevelt would be accompanied by the United States Chiefs of Staff, that his talks with Prime Minister Churchill, Generalissimo Chiang, Marshal Stalin, and President Inönü would center primarily on military problems, and that there would be a conference of the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff with Roosevelt and Churchill, regardless of whether it proved possible to arrange meetings with the Chinese, Russians, and Turks.

In view of the military nature of all these proposed discussions President Roosevelt relied primarily on the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make the necessary substantive preparations. Acting Secretary of State Stettinius was informed in great confidence of the President’s projected trip, and a few memoranda on political subjects were submitted to the President in response to his requests, but the Department of State was not asked to draft any policy recommendations or “position papers” of the type that were prepared and organized into comprehensive “briefing books” for the later conferences at Yalta and Potsdam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff prepared agenda for the military discussions, but there were no agenda for any of the political discussions at Cairo and Tehran.

In this connection it is worth noting that Secretary Hull was at the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers during the latter half of October and that this conference itself was regarded as being preparatory to the forthcoming meeting of the Heads of Government. By delimiting major areas of agreement and disagreement, the Foreign Ministers at Moscow did in effect identify certain subjects which would need to be referred to the Heads of Government for further consideration. For this reason Roosevelt postponed his departure for North Africa until after Hull had returned to Washington and had personally briefed him on the highlights of the Moscow Conference (see ante, p. 67, footnote 3. and Hull. vol. II. p. 1313

In the light of these circumstances the following categories of papers have been included as background for the conferences at Cairo and Tehran:

(1) Papers specifically prepared for use or consideration at the forthcoming conferences of the Heads of Government and the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

(2) Papers that were not originally prepared with these conferences in mind but which were submitted to Roosevelt in connection with preparations for these conferences.

(3) Correspondence relating to the papers in the two above-mentioned categories, plus correspondence between the Heads of Government or their representatives regarding substantive problems to be taken up at the conferences.

(4) Excerpts from the minutes and documents of the Moscow Conference that show the nature and status of the subjects that were referred by the Foreign Ministers to the Heads of Government. This category also includes communications on these subjects to and from Roosevelt up to the time of his arrival in Cairo.

For many of the subjects touched upon at Cairo and Tehran there were no preparatory papers or special negotiations in anticipation of the meeting of the Heads of Government. The background on these subjects, including the complete documentation of the Moscow Conference, is scheduled to be published in other Foreign Relations volumes for 1943.