Office of the Historian

740.00119 Council/12–2645

The American Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (Molotov)74

Moscow, December 9, 1945.

Dear Mr. Molotov: I transmitted to Mr. Byrnes your letter to me of December 7 concerning the agenda, and I have just received a reply.75 Mr. Byrnes asks that I inform you that he is pleased with your agreement to his proposals for the agenda. He states that he would have no objection to the transfer to the end of the agenda of his first point, namely, that relating to atomic energy.

Mr. Byrnes asks me to point out that it would be difficult for the United States to arrive at a definite understanding regarding American troops in China in the absence of representatives of the Chinese Government. However, Mr. Byrnes will be glad, if it is satisfactory to you and Mr. Bevin, to have an informal exchange of views on the withdrawal of Allied troops from all independent states other than Germany and Japan.

Mr. Byrnes of course confirms the understanding that the final agenda will be drawn up by mutual agreement when the three Foreign Ministers meet in Moscow.

Sincerely yours,

W. A. Harriman
  1. This letter was later circulated at the First Session of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers, December 16, 1945, and was included as enclosure 1 to the United States delegation minutes of that meeting.↩
  2. For the Secretary’s reply, see telegram 2477, December 8, noon, to Moscow, p. 603.↩