740.00119 Control (Hungary)/6–3045: Telegram

No. 302
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State ad interim
secret

2354. Reorganization of ACC Hungary for second period.

I feel that Gen Key is in a better position than we are here to judge which points are suitable for inclusion in a re-draft of Control Commission statutes for second period and I have no doubt that the ones he has listed1 are well chosen as maximum desiderata on our part. However I have received no response from Molotov to my letter of June 1 proposing effective tripartite authority over ACC (ReEmbs 1876, June 22) and have no assurance [doubt?] that the Russians will certainly have misgivings about any arrangements whereby the Brit and Amer reps acting singly or together could veto any action on the part of the commission on which they were not in agreement. Judging from our previous experience we cannot regard it as probable that the Russians will accept such arrangements unless some form of strong pressure is brought to bear. If this is correct the real question is how far our govt is willing to go in backing this plan against possible Soviet opposition. (To Dept as 2354 rptd Budapest 19 London 34) If we are not prepared to bring pressure to bear it is probably better tactics not to press too vigorously for it at this stage.

Harriman