Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, Volume III

740.00119 (Potsdam)/6–645: Telegram

Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Truman, to the President

[Extract—Paraphrase]⁹¹

[Moscow,] May 26, 1945.

262101. …

. . . . . . .

In confidence he⁹² said that he was going to appoint Marshal Zhukov to the Control Council for Germany.⁹³ While in Paris at Eisenhower’s request a move was made to get de Gaulle to name his representative even though the final details of the French zone have not been definitely arranged, hence at an early date the Control Council should be able to meet.⁹⁴

. . . . . . .

91. For the portion of this telegram dealing with the Polish question, see vol. v, p. 299.
92. Marshal Stalin.
93. On May 31, 1945, it was officially announced that Marshal of the Soviet Union Gregory Konstantinovich Zhukov, the Commander of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany, had been designated the representative of the Soviet High Command in the Control Council.
94. For the record of the conversation between Mr. Hopkins, Ambassador Harriman, Marshal Stalin, and Foreign Commissar Molotov, held at the Kremlin, May 26, at 8 p.m., see the memorandum by Mr. Charles E. Bohlen, Assistant to the Secretary of State, dated May 26, 1945, Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. i, p. 24.