Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
The President to the Secretary of State1
priority
Personal and secret from the President for the eyes of Secretary Hull only.2
I have received a message from the Marshal3 stating that it is impossible for him to meet Churchill and me anywhere else but Teheran. A careful check-up on time risks and constitutional requirements here makes Teheran impossible for me.
In reply to my several messages the Marshal has shown no realization of my obligations.
Therefore, will you please deliver the following message from me to the Marshal and explain to him orally the definite and clear reasons which are not actuated by personal desires but are fixed by our 4 Constitution. This is not a question of theory; it is a question of fact.
“Personal and Secret for Marshal Stalin.
I am deeply disappointed in your message received today4 in regard to our meeting.
[Page 36]Please accept my assurance that I fully appreciate and understand your reason for requiring daily guidance on the part of the Supreme Command and your personal contact with the Command which is bringing such outstanding results. This is of high importance.
And I wish you would realize that there are other vital matters which, in this constitutional American Government, represent fixed obligations on my part which I cannot change. Our Constitution calls for action by the President on legislation within ten days of the passage of such legislation. That means that the President must receive and return to the Congress, with his written approval or his veto, physical documents in that period. I cannot act by cable or radio, as I have told you before.
The trouble with Teheran is the simple fact that the approaches to that city over the mountain often make flying an impossibility for several days at a time. This is a double risk; first, for the plane delivering documents from Washington and, second, for the plane returning these documents to the Congress. I regret to say that as head of the Nation, it is impossible for me to go to a place where I cannot fulfill my constitutional obligations.
I can assume the flying risks for documents up to and including the Low Country as far as the Persian Gulf, through a relay system of planes, but I cannot assume the delays attending flights in both directions into the saucer over the mountains in which Teheran lies. Therefore, with much regret I must tell you that I cannot go to Teheran and in this my Cabinet members and the Legislative Leaders are in complete agreement.
Therefore, I can make one last practical suggestion. That is that all three of us should go to Basra where we shall be perfectly protected in three camps, to be established and guarded by our respective national troops. As you know, you can easily have a special telephone, under your own control, laid from Basra to Teheran where you will reach your own line into Russia. Such a wire service should meet all your needs, and by plane you will only be a little further off from Russia than in Teheran itself.
I am not in any way considering the fact that from United States territory I would have to travel six thousand miles and you would only have to travel six hundred miles from Russian territory.
I would gladly go ten times the distance to meet you wore it not for the fact that I must carry on a constitutional government more than one hundred and fifty years old.
You have a great obligation to your people to carry on the defeat of our common enemy, but I am begging you to remember that I also have a great obligation to the American Government and to maintain the full American war effort.
As I have said to you before, I regard the meeting of the three of us as of the greatest possible importance, not only to our peoples as of today, but also to our peoples in relation to a peaceful world for generations to come.
It would be regarded as a tragedy by future generations if you and I and Mr. Churchill failed today because of a few hundred miles.
I repeat that I would gladly go to Teheran were I not prevented from doing so because of limitations over which I have no control.
I am suggesting Basra because of your communciations problems.
[Page 37]If you do not like this I deeply hope you will reconsider Bagdad or Asmara or even Ankara in Turkey. The latter place is neutral territory, but I think it is worth considering and that the Turks might welcome the idea of being hosts though, of course, I have not mentioned this to them or anybody else.
Please do not fail me in this crisis. Roosevelt”