Leahy Papers: Telegram

No. 5
President Truman to Prime Minister Churchill 1

top secret

36. Your Number 40.2

I would much prefer to have Stalin propose the meeting and believe it is worth while to endeavor, through our Ambassadors,3 to induce him to propose the meeting. If such an effort fails, we can then consider our issuing an invitation jointly or severally.

When and if such a meeting is arranged, it appears to me that in order to avoid any suspicion of our “ganging up” it would be advantageous for us to proceed to the meeting place separately.

When the conference ends, if my duties here do not make it impossible, I shall be very pleased to make a visit to England where you and I may discuss fully our common interests and problems.

I am fully in agreement that the next few months will decide questions of the greatest consequence to the whole world.

  1. Presumably sent to the United States Naval Attaché, London, via Navy channels.
  2. Document No. 3.
  3. W. Averell Harriman and Sir Archibald Clark Kerr were, respectively, the American and British Ambassadors to the Soviet Union.