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

740.00119 Control (Germany)/2–2445

The United States Political Adviser for Germany ( Murphy ) to the Director of the Office of European Affairs ( Matthews )

Paris , February 24, 1945.

Dear Dog: I think you will be interested in the enclosed paraphrases of a telegram of February 20¹⁴ from General Hilldring¹⁵ in the War Department to Generals McSherry¹⁶ and Wickersham, as well as a reply from General McSherry for General Hilldring sent on February 22.¹⁷ These concern a misunderstanding under which General Hilldring seems to be laboring to the effect that SHAEF officers regard the future Control Council as an advisory rather than a policy determining and operating body and that the U.S. zonal authorities would use their own judgment whether they would accept and follow agreed policy established in the Control Council, and also that the U.S. Zone would be run as a separate entity. All of this relates to the post-defeat period. Bedell Smith¹⁸ took vigorous exception to Hilldring’s telegram. General McSherry denies that such a situation prevails.

I don’t know what is at the root of General Hilldring’s misunderstanding but it might be interesting for Jimmie Riddleberger to look into it. General Hilldring has written several letters on the subject to different officers here and apparently persists in the notion that American officers in London and at SHAEF are either sabotaging or misconstruing JCS 1067.^18a I don’t know where General Hilldring is obtaining his information but it seems to be baseless from what I have been able to learn in London and at SHAEF. Naturally there have been numerous discussions of the meaning of JCS 1067 in committee meetings but always with the purpose of arriving at a better understanding of the language and with a desire to implement the policy.

Yours ever,

Bob Murphy

14. Paraphrase of War Department telegram WX 40618, not printed.
15. Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring, Director of the Civil Affairs Division, War Department.
16. Brig. Gen. Frank J. McSherry, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Civil Affairs Division (G–5), Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force.
17. Paraphrase of War Department telegram S–79987, not printed.
18. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force.
19. Reference is to the directive issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander in Chief of the United States Forces of Occupation, regarding the Military Government of Germany. The first version of this document, dated September 22, 1944, is printed in Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 143. Subsequent revisions leading to issuance of the directive in May 1945 are covered in documentation on “Participation of the United States in the work of the European Advisory Commission,” part III, ante, pp. 369–533, passim. For the April 26 version of the directive (IPCOG 1), see p. 484; for the text as released to the press October 17, see Department of State Bulletin, October 21, 1945, p. 596.