Office of the Historian

500.CC/6–545: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)

Washington, June 5, 1945—8 p.m.

1228. For the Ambassador and Mr. Hopkins. The following message is from the Secretary and is sent to you with the approval of the President: [Page 1171]

“Monday evening in our cable to you26 we expressed the thought that we could clarify further the original proposed statement on the voting procedure in the Security Council. After several attempts we find that we are unable to do so. It is now obvious that such clarification would not meet both the wishes of the Soviet delegation and ourselves. Therefore, we must stand upon the text of our original statement and explanations given in our previous telegrams of last Saturday and Sunday.27

“If you have not concluded your discussion with the Marshal about the veto I suggest that you urge that the President feels it is essential that the Marshal agree to our interpretation in order to secure ratification by the Senate.”28

Grew
  1. Telegram 1219, June 5, 4 a.m., to Moscow, Informed Ambassador Harriman and Mr. Hopkins that a second conversation had been held with Soviet officials the evening of June 4 regarding the proposed interpretative statement on voting procedure in the Security Council and that it seemed that the Soviet officials had seriously misunderstood the original text (500.CC/6–545).↩
  2. Telegrams 1203, June 2, 6 p.m., and 1212, June 3, 2 a.m., to Moscow, and telegrams 3 and 4, June 3, from San Francisco, pp. 1117, 1119, 1131, and 1136, respectively.↩

  3. In telegram 1930, June 6, 8 p.m., from Moscow, Mr. Hopkins sent the following message to Acting Secretary Grew for President Truman and Mr. Stettinius: “Stalin agrees to accept the United States position regarding voting procedure in the Council. Details follow.” (500.CC/6–645)

    For additional information on the June 6th meeting, see Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, pp. 910–912.

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