Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
Marshal Stalin to President Roosevelt
Secret and personal from Premier J. V. Stalin to President F. D. Roosevelt.
I have received your message regarding the discussions at Dumbarton Oaks.2
I also hope that these important discussions may end successfully. This may be of serious significance for the further strengthening of cooperation of our countries and for the whole cause of future peace and security.
I must say that for the success of the activities of the International Security Organization, of great significance will be the order of voting in the Council, having in mind the importance that the Council work on the basis of the principle of coordination and unanimity of the four leading powers on all questions, including those which directly relate to one of these nations. The initial American proposal that there should be established a special procedure of voting in case of a dispute in which one or several members of the Council, who have the statute [status?] of permanent members, are directly involved, seems to me correct. Otherwise will be brought to naught the agreement achieved among us at the Teheran Conference which is proceeding from the principle of provision, first of all, the unanimity of agreement of four powers necessary for the struggle against aggression in the future.
Such a unanimity proposes [presupposes?], of course, that among these powers there is no room for mutual suspicions. As to the Soviet Union, it cannot also ignore the presence of certain absurd prejudices which often hinder an actually objective attitude toward the U.S.S.R. [Page 425] And the other nations also should weigh the consequences which the lack of unanimity among the leading powers may bring about.
I hope that you will understand the seriousness of the considerations expressed here and that we shall find a harmonious solution of this question as well.
- This translation accompanied the Russian-language original when the message was delivered in Washington hy the Soviet Embassy. The translation was forwarded to Roosevelt at Quebec by the White House Map Boom in telegram No. MR-out-407, September 15, 1944. By direction of the President (telegram No. MR-in-153), a copy was sent to Stettinius.↩
- Roosevelt had instructed Harriman on September 8, 1944, to deliver a message asking Stalin to instruct the Soviet delegation to the Dumbarton Oaks conversations on the proposed world organization, then in progress in Washington, to agree to the position of the British and United States delegations that members of the Council of the proposed organization should not vote in disputes to which they were parties, this rule to apply even to permanent members of the Council (who could otherwise exercise a veto). For the text of Roosevelt’s message, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. i, pp. 788–789.↩