Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, The Far East, Volume V

761.91/12–844

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Murray)⁹⁵

[Washington,] December 11, 1944.

The attached memorandum to the President⁹⁶ on Soviet-Iranian relations represents the considered views of this Office, after consultation with Mr. Bohlen.

Our proposed memorandum tells the story and I will therefore not amplify it here. Needless to say, all of us and Mr. Bohlen are in complete agreement that it would be a great mistake to proceed along the lines suggested in the President’s underlying memorandum of December 8, 1944.^96a

To take such action now might well cause the whole house to fall in on our heads, and we do not see how we could properly act in the sense suggested by the President without full prior consultation and approval of the British who are parties with us to the Declaration on Iran, signed just a year ago.

Wallace Murray

95. Addressed to the Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Dunn).
96. Apparently the memorandum, or a draft thereof, which went to President Roosevelt under the date of December 18, infra.
97. Ante, p. 483.