800.796/9–944
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
The President telephoned me yesterday evening. He referred to his conversation with Secretary Hull about the proposed international aviation conference; and then said that after thinking it over he approved the project and believed we should go ahead.
He said that a United Nations Conference on the Dumbarton Oaks agreements77 might be coming along on October 25 and wondered about dates. I told him that I thought late October would be the very earliest it could be held. He said he thought that some of the people coming from the Dumbarton Oaks Conference might go from there to the aviation conference; in fact, this was simply another section of the peace settlements; and left the question of the date to us. He asked whether we had any ideas as to place. I told him that I understood he did not want conferences in Washington where they would be difficult and inconvenient; and added that I had been wondering whether some Midwest city like Chicago, Illinois, might not be useful. He said this idea appealed to him; though he obviously had not had time to consider the point carefully.
He asked whether I thought we could get unanimity. I told him that as we had outlined the conference—to deal with preliminary arrangements, with principles for long-range settlement, and with reference to drafting committees to work up the final projects—there was always an “out”: questions which threatened to provoke differences could always be referred, if need be, to the drafting committees. I further said that if he could find it in his heart to have this conference open to the public and press from the very beginning I thought we could come in with a proposition which would so powerfully engage public sentiment that few, if any, countries would care to exclude the United States from its legitimate rights; and that other differences could either be composed in committee or left for later negotiation. The President agreed and authorized us to go ahead.
- For documentation on the Dumbarton Oaks conversations, held at Washington, August 21 to October 7, 1944, see vol. i, pp. 713 ff.↩