865.01/2657a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Naples (Brandt)
193. For Kirk. The contents of your 17264a have been brought to the President’s attention in connection with the message he has received from the Prime Minister concerning the composition of the new Italian Government (Department’s no. 183 of June 1265). The President will send a reply to Mr. Churchill when he also has Murphy’s views which have been requested.
Meanwhile, however, it has been suggested to the President that we should not be unduly influenced by Churchill’s precipitate action; that his alarm may be unwarranted and that his attitude toward the political developments in Rome appears at variance with American policy. The Department said that until all of Italy is liberated there appears to be no better indication of popular will than that expressed [Page 1131] through the parties of the Committee of National Liberation; that it has been our policy to welcome democratic political solutions worked out by the Italian people themselves; that the present Government appears to be such a solution and that its anti-Fascist and democratic character should be welcomed and supported by this Government and the other democracies. The Department concluded its comments to the President by expressing the opinion that any interference on our part at this time to change the complexion of a Government which we have every reason to believe is friendly to the Allies and bitterly anti-Fascist and anti-Nazi would be misunderstood generally and would appear to be contrary to the Moscow Declaration and to our general policy of encouraging the development of a truly democratic and representative government in Italy.
Sent to Naples. Repeated to Algiers for Murphy and to London and Moscow.66