860m.01/7–1044
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Bohlen)
The Lithuanian Minister94 called today at his own request and handed me the attached document.95 He apologized for the length of the note but said that he wanted to have a summary of the entire picture as affecting Lithuania before the Department. He added that he was making no specific suggestion of action on the part of the United States Government, but did hope that the facts set forth in the attached note would be taken into consideration should an occasion present itself for the United States Government to exert, as he put it, “a moderating” influence on the Soviet Government.
I told the Minister that I would, of course, study his note and also see that it got to the appropriate officials of the Department. The Minister said he realized how difficult it was to do anything helpful in the present situation, but he said he felt that this “transition period” which is a tragic hour for his country is also one which will determine its future. He said that the information which he had received was that there was panic and complete disorder in Lithuania, and that both the Russian and German troops have been shooting a number of Lithuanians.
I obtained the impression that the Minister was presenting this note more for the record than in any hope that some action could be taken with the Soviet Government in regard to Lithuania.
- Povilas Zadeikis.↩
- Not printed. The Lithuanian Minister in this note inveighed against the “devious processes” employed by the Soviet Union in the destruction of the independence of Lithuania from 1940 and its incorporation into the Soviet Union. It now appeared likely that present military operations would force out the German troops and be followed by renewed Soviet occupation, which the Lithuanian people viewed as a threat of permanent enslavement. He requested the American Government to use its good offices in further assisting his country to survive as an independent entity, so that Lithuania might see “the day when all the peoples of the world may live free lives untouched by tyranny and according to their varying desires and their own consciences.” (860m.01/7–1044)↩