Truman Papers
No. 1171
President Truman to
Generalissimo Stalin
My Dear Generalissimo: At the present time American air traffic between the U. S. and the U. S. S. R. is accomplished via Teheran. From the United States point of view this is an extremely wasteful use of critically needed air transport, in addition to the time lost in travel.
The U. S. has now established a military transport service into Berlin for handling official U. S. traffic which could be made available [Page 1168] for official Soviet traffic as well. I therefore seek your approval to diverting American and Soviet traffic now carried through Teheran to a route through Berlin.