860H.20/130

The Secretary of State to the Director of the Office of Strategic Services ( Donovan )

My Dear General Donovan: I have had under consideration your letter of April 786 requesting the Department’s views on a proposal to expand the activities of the Office of Strategic Services in Yugoslavia by strengthening the military mission now operating with the Partisan forces.

I heartily approve of this project as outlined in your letter, and I take it that the enlarged mission would be so organized as to operate independent of, but parallel to, the British and Russian missions in that territory.

At the same time I think that notwithstanding every emphasis on the purely military nature of the mission in question we must be prepared for the fact that a political character will inevitably be attributed to it after its arrival in Yugoslavia. Consequently I suggest that we again confer when you have decided on the officer to head the [Page 1370] mission, and perhaps we should arrange for some detailed discussion of the political questions likely to arise, in order to incorporate appropriate instructions in the directive for the mission.

Of connected interest, though the matter is not mentioned in your letter, is the desire of the Partisans, which has been made known to us in various ways, to send a military mission to this country, thus putting the project on the basis of an exchange of military missions. I think it would not be advisable for this Government to agree to receive a Partisan mission here, unless there are important military considerations of which I am not informed.

As I understand it the American mission to Yugoslavia will have precise functions for military intelligence, special operations, arranging supply lines, technical air force intelligence, and morale operations against the enemy. The functions of a corresponding Yugoslav mission here would therefore be not at all parallel. It seems to me that under the arrangements for the military theatre which includes Yugoslavia there would be little for a Partisan military mission to accomplish in Washington. I feel sure that its major activity would be political, and the effect would be detrimental to the effort now being made to resolve some of the controversies between the Partisans and the Yugoslav Government. I have in mind also the controversies among groups of Yugoslav-Americans, which have not been helpful to our national unity, and which would doubtless be sharpened by the attendant publicity if a new Yugoslav mission should come here while the general Yugoslav question is in its present fluid state.

If your proposal for an enlarged and independent American military mission to the Partisans is approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, officers of this Department will be glad at any time to enter into a detailed discussion with your organization, on the several political questions which might have bearing on the mission’s work.87

Sincerely yours,

Cordell Hull
  1. Not printed.
  2. The proposal was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and after much delay the “Independent American Military Mission to Marshal Tito” began operations in August 1944.