Roosevelt Papers: Telegram
President Roosevelt to Prime Minister Churchill 1
priority
Number 670, Top Secret and Personal from the President for the Prime Minister.
Your 846.
You will have seen from my reply2 to Stalin on his talks with De Gaulle that our views are identical on the two questions which he raised.
I still adhere to my position that any attempt to include De Gaulle in the meeting of the three of us would merely introduce a complicating and undesirable factor.
In regard to your suggestion to Uncle Joe that the question of France’s postwar frontiers be referred to the European Advisory Commission I feel that since the Commission is fully occupied with questions relating to the surrender of Germany, it would be a mistake to attempt to bring up at this stage before it any questions of postwar frontiers. It seems to me preferable to leave this specific topic for further exploration between us.
I fully appreciate the advantages which you see in a possible tripartite Anglo-Franco-Soviet pact. I am somewhat dubious, however, as to the effect of such an arrangement on the question of an international security organization to which, as you know, I attach the very highest importance. I fear that a tripartite pact might be interpreted by public opinion here as a competitor to a future world organization, whereas a bilateral arrangement between France and the Soviet Union similar to the Soviet-British Pact would be more understandable. I realize, however, that this is a subject which is of primary concern to the three countries involved.