Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Marshal Stalin to President Roosevelt1
Translation
Personal and secret message to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Premier J. V. Stalin
In regard to the place of the forthcoming meeting of the heads of the three Governments, I want to tell you the following.
Unfortunately, not one of the places proposed by you for the meeting instead of Tegeran [Tehran] is acceptable for me.2
In the course of the operations of the Soviet troops during the summer and the fall of this year, it became clear that our troops can continue their offensive operations against the German Army, and summer campaign may overgrow into winter one.
All my colle[a]gues consider that these operations demand daily guidance on the part of the Supreme Command, and my personal contact with the Command. In Tegeran conditions are better, since there are wire telegraph and telephone communications with Moscow, what cannot be said about the other places. That is why my colle[a]gues insist on Tegeran as the place of the meeting.
I agree with you that representatives of press must not be present at the meeting. I also accept your proposal to set November 20th or 25th as possible date of the meeting.
[Page 34]Mr. Hull has safely arrived in Moscow, and I hope that his direct participation in the Moscow meeting of the three countries will do a great good.3
October 19, 1943.
- Apparently sent via the Soviet Embassy, Washington.↩
- The following additional sentence appears at this point in the translation printed in Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 101: “It is not a matter of security, for that does not worry me.”↩
- The records of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers are scheduled to be published in Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i. Excerpts relating to arrangements for the Conference of the Heads of Government are printed in this chapter of the present volume; excerpts relating to substantive preparations for the Conference of the Heads of Government are printed in the next chapter.↩