860H.01/867
Draft of a Letter to Marshal Tito
Draft of a Letter To Be Signed by the Head of the Proposed American Military Mission, for Marshal Tito in Acknowledgment of His Letter to the President 84
My Dear Marshal Tito: The President has directed me to thank you for your attentive reception of the American officers who were [Page 1369] sent into Yugoslavia, and for the friendly letter which you handed to Major Weil for delivery to him.85
The people and government of the United States do not underrate the valiant contribution which the Yugoslav people have already made to our common cause. We Americans know to what degree the people of Yugoslavia have suffered because they chose the hard but nobler way when the enemy came down upon them, and we realize both the urgent need for help of many kinds, while the war continues, and the tremendous tasks ahead for repairing the ravages of war and rebuilding the institutions necessary to a free people.
I have been particularly directed to say that the information which our officers have already obtained within Yugoslavia will be most useful to our military authorities and to the Allied command in working out the plans for rendering more effective assistance in strengthening resistance in Yugoslavia to the Germans, for contriving improved service of supply, and for fitting the operations in Yugoslavia into the general scheme for the conduct of the war.
It is now our business actively to carry forward this work under arrangements which will be taken up with you separately. The President has directed me to say that he knows that we shall have your unreserved and energetic help.
- This letter, drafted May 13, 1944, was approved by President Roosevelt on May 23 and was turned over to the Office of Strategic Services on June 14 to be sent to Marshal Tito. In a letter to President Roosevelt of May 17, the Secretary of State urged that the President adopt this indirect method of acknowledging Marshal Tito’s letter on the grounds that “there has been no abatement in the conflict between Tito and the Government which we continue to recognize”. (860H.01/867)↩
- Dated March 15, p. 1356.↩