Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–1045

Memorandum by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of War (Stimson) and the Secretary of the Navy (Forrestal)34

Washington, 10 May 1945.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy inform the Secretary of State as follows:

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff have reconsidered the military implications of the proposed directive to the Commander in Chief, United States Forces of Occupation regarding the military government of [Page 510] Germany contained in IPCOG 1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff perceive no objections to the directive from a military point of view provided the following amendments are made in lieu of those contained in the letter dated 2 May 1945:35

  • “a. Delete the period at the end of the last sentence, paragraph 30, and add the following: ‘except that, in your discretion, you may permit the production of synthetic rubber and oil, aluminum and magnesium, to the minimum extent necessary to meet the purposes stated in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the directive pending action by the Joint Chiefs of Staff upon such recommendation for postponement as you may make.’
  • “b. Delete the period and add the following words to the last sentence of paragraph 32: ‘as soon as you have had an opportunity to review and determine production necessary for the purposes stated in paragraphs 4 and 5 of this directive.’
  • “c. After the word ‘services’ in paragraph 34 c, add the words ‘(excluding goods specified in paragraphs 30 and 32 unless measures to facilitate production are specifically approved by this Government through the Joint Chiefs of Staff).’ Also delete the words ‘reparation, for your forces and, subject to the provisions of paragraph 21 of this directive, for the German people’ and substitute the words ‘the purposes outlined in paragraphs 4 and 5 of this directive.’ ”

For the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
William D. Leahy
,
Fleet Admiral, U.S. Navy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy
  1. Transmitted as an annex to a memorandum from the Secretary of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (Charles W. McCarthy) to Assistant Secretary of State Clayton. The memorandum read in part as follows: “Attached hereto is a copy of a memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretaries of War and the Navy containing certain amendments to the Directive to Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Forces of Occupation regarding the Military Government of Germany, which were accepted by the Informal Policy Committee on Germany at its meeting on 4 May 1945.”↩
  2. Not printed.↩