851.01/10–2044: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)
2483. For the Chargé d’Affaires. Please deliver the following message from the President to Marshal Stalin:81
“Personal and Top Secret. For Marshal Stalin from the President. We have been giving active consideration to the diplomatic recognition of the existing French authorities as the Provisional Government of France. The recent enlargement of the Consultative Assembly has made these authorities more representative of the French people. It is expected that in the very near future the French, with the agreement of General Eisenhower, will set up a real zone of the interior which will be under French administration and that when this is done it would be an appropriate time to recognize the French authorities as the Provisional Government of France. I am informing you in advance of our intentions in this regard in case you wish to take some similar action at the time the zone of the interior is set up under French administration.”
- Josif Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.↩