740.00119 European War 1939/2561: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
1461. Your 1551 of May 2. The question of reference to the term unconditional surrender in propaganda to the satellite states was the subject for a recent communication from the Department to the President.
The Department referred to the President’s earlier decision, which was conveyed to you in its 881 of April 12, whereby the President had directed that the general principle be retained though exception might be made in its application in specific cases. It was pointed out that the Soviet Government had not applied the principle to Finland, and the same could be said for Rumania, if the Rumanians should come to terms along the lines proposed for their surrender. It was therefore supposed that the propaganda agencies would take these considerations into account in preparing their directives. As for Hungary and Bulgaria, the Department observed that advantages could in fact be gained from energetic action in propaganda operations, and inquired whether the President would approve our taking parallel action with the British and Russians in authorizing a degree of latitude for propaganda purposes, having it clearly understood that the exception is authorized to enable the propaganda services to omit reference to the term, though of course, in its application to these countries there would be no public recantation of the principle.
The President has approved this proposal.
Sent to Moscow, repeated to London.71
- As telegram 4568.↩