Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the President1
Number SD 3. Personal and secret for the President only from the Secretary of State.
In accordance with your instructions contained in your Navy cable,2 I called on Marshal Stalin this afternoon, Monday,3 at three o’clock, accompanied by Ambassador Harriman. Mr. Molotov was also present.
After an exchange of amenities, I told the Marshal that my government and people attached the highest importance to the forthcoming meeting between himself, the Prime Minister, and you, and handed to him your communication.4 Stalin read our unofficial Russian translation and passed it on to Molotov. He, then, said that he would have to consider the proposal in regard to Basra as a place of meeting and consult with his associates. He made no mention of any of the other places suggested as possible alternatives in your communication.
Mr. Molotov, obviously expressing Mr. Stalin’s thoughts, said that the question of any other place except Teheran was a most difficult one. That both civil and military authorities in the Soviet Union were loath to have the Marshal absent himself at all and that he could not go to a place where he could not maintain constant direction of the important military operations now in progress.
Stalin, then, said that he thought it might be possible to postpone the meeting until next spring when military operations would have to be suspended during the thaw, at which time Fairbanks might be an appropriate place.
[Page 46]I, then, endeavored orally to persuade the Marshal of the real importance for our common cause which such a meeting would have both in prosecution of the war and for the post war period. I told him that if, in addition to the announcement of such agreements as we might be able to reach at the present conference our three governments could announce a disposition on the part of the heads of state to meet and confer, the effect would electrify our peoples and Allies and be most disheartening to our enemies.
Stalin replied that he had in progress important military operations with the summer campaign merging into that of the winter; that there was now an opportunity which might only occur once in fifty years in warfare to inflict a decisive defeat on the Germans whose available reserves were very few while the Russians had sufficient reserves for an entire year. He added that he did not feel he could neglect this opportunity. He repeated that he would confer with his colleagues on this latest message from you.
I, then, dwelt on the possibility from a technical point of view [of] establishing equally good communications between Teheran and Basra as exist between Teheran and Moscow, which would permit his constant direction of these operations. I made it clear to him that, while from every point of view we regarded this meeting of the highest importance, both you and I understood that military considerations came first.
Stalin said that his position was not based on stubbornness or on considerations of prestige but entirely on the circumstances which he had mentioned. He said he did not see why a delay of two days in the transmission of any state papers could be so vitally important, whereas a false step in military matters was not a grammatical error which could be subsequently corrected but might cost thousands of lives.
The Ambassador at my request outlined in detail the technical arrangements which we considered could be made to insure absolutely reliable communications between Basra and Moscow and referred to our willingness to do everything we could to assist on this point. The Ambassador mentioned the fact that the three heads of state would be able to stay in three camps in the hills under the protection of troops of their own nationality, to which Stalin replied that he was not a kit concerned about the question of protection but only communication.
Stalin pointed out in this connection that, in regard to the wire and other means of communication between Teheran and Moscow, everything was Russian but the territory which was Iranian.
At the close of the interview Stalin repeated his desire to consult with his colleagues before making an answer.