740.00119 EW 1939/6–2944: Telegram
The Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: The Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered your memorandum of 30 June enclosing paraphrased telegrams from Ambassador MacVeagh to the Department and from the British Resident Minister in Cairo to the Foreign Office72 dealing with Mr. Maniu’s proposals for aligning Rumania with the Allied powers against the Germans.
So far as the military aspects of Mr. Maniu’s plans are concerned, they are in the main of primary concern to the Russians who must be the ones to say whether the plan is acceptable from a military standpoint and whether they are prepared to act on it. It is impracticable for American forces to provide the airborne and parachute troops envisaged as being required. It would appear practicable, however, for Allied air forces to bomb communications between Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania as indeed has already been done to a considerable extent. Should some such over-all plan be found otherwise acceptable, no reason is foreseen why the required air bombing operations could not be carried out.
It would seem from the military point of view the attitude of the United States should be to support the position taken by the British Resident Minister at Cairo as set forth in paragraph (4) of his telegram dated 28 June 1944 to the Foreign Office.73
Sincerely yours,
Admiral, U.S. Navy Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy