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

Roosevelt Papers

The Agreed Text of the Communiqué

December 4, 1943

[Editorial Note.—The copy reproduced here contains the text agreed to by Churchill and Stalin (see Harriman’s handwritten note, printed below). This copy is referred to below as the “agreed text”.

Material which was crossed out by hand on this copy—whether before or after it was shown to Churchill and Stalin, is not known—is printed here in canceled type. A handwritten notation by Harriman, in the lower left corner of the single sheet comprising this copy, is printed here in italics.

A copy of the communiqué in the Bohlen Collection is identical with the agreed text as changed; i. e., the material deleted at the end of this text does not appear in the copy in the Bohlen Collection.

The text as released by the White House in mimeographed form for publication on December 6, 1943 (referred to below as the “release text”), corresponds in some respects to the agreed text and in other respects to the third draft as amended. The release text was based on a cablegram of December 4, 1943, from Hopkins, at Cairo, to Stephen Early, Secretary to the President, at Washington, filed in the Roosevelt Papers.

Differences in phrasing between the agreed text and the release text are indicated in the footnotes below. Differences in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are not indicated. The insignificant differences between the release text and the text printed in the Department of State Bulletin, vol. IX, December 11, 1943, p. 409, are also not indicated.]

To be released to the Press,
8:00 p.m. Moscow Time,
December 6, 1943.

Declaration of the Three Powers

We—The President of the United States, The Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past in this, the capital of our ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy.

We express our determination that our nations shall work together in war and in the peace that will follow.

As to war—Our military staffs have joined in our round table discussions, and we have concerted our plans for the destruction of the German forces. We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of the operations which will be undertaken¹ from the East, West and South.

The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours.

And as to peace—we are sure that our concord will make it an enduring peace.² We recognize fully the supreme responsibility resting upon us and all the United Nations, to make a peace which will command the good will of the overwhelming mass of the peoples of the world, and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations.

With our diplomatic advisers we have surveyed the problems of the future. We shall seek the cooperation and the active participation of all nations, large and small, whose peoples in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance. We will welcome them, as they may choose to come, into a world family of democratic nations.

No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German armies by land, their U-boats by sea, and their war plants from the air.

Our attack will be relentless and increasing.

Emerging from these friendly³ conferences we look with confidence to the day when all peoples of the world may live free lives, untouched by tyranny, and according to their varying desires and their own consciences.

We came here with hope and determination. We leave here, friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose.

Signed at Teheran, Iran, December 1, 1943.⁴

F. D. Roosevelt
J. Stalin
W. Churchill⁵

Text agreed to by the P. M. & the Marshall [Marshal] W. A. H.

1. This passage reads, in the release text, “operations to be undertaken”.
2. This passage reads, in the release text, “our concord will win an enduring peace”.
3. The fourth word in the paragraph, in the release text, is “cordial” instead of “friendly”.
4. The release text gives this line below, rather than above, the names of the Heads of Government.
5. The names in the agreed text are typewritten. The three Heads of Government do not appear to have signed any copy of this document, which was intended primarily as a press release. The release text reads as follows, on one line: “Signed: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.”