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

740.00119 Control (Germany)/11–245

The Secretary of War (Patterson) to the Secretary of State

Washington, November 2, 1945.

Dear Mr. Secretary: As I understand it from our discussion at the meeting of October 23rd, you are in sympathy with the desire of the War Department to transfer military government in former Axis countries from military to civilian control at the earliest practicable date. This action would be in conformity with the President’s announcement on October 31st,⁴⁰ that U.S. military government control of Germany should be transferred to American civilian authorities by June 1st, 1946. This is of course simply an extension to foreign fields of the long-established American policy that the Army should not allow itself to become involved in matters of civil government. As soon as military and security reasons no longer exist, the occupational duties of the Army should be divorced from those relating to civil administration. If this premise is granted, I think you will agree that the State Department is the logical agency of our government through which the civil administration of occupied enemy territories should be accomplished.

The question, then, is one of timing and as to this I appreciate your position that the transfer is not without difficulty and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, in order that the transition may be accomplished smoothly and efficiently it is essential that action be initiated without delay to accomplish the desired result. The first step is agreement on a target date for completion of the transfer, and this we should be able to agree on now. As directed by the President, in the case of Germany, this would be no later than June 1st, 1946. Other necessary steps appear to me to be as follows:

a. The establishment of an administrative agency to furnish the administrative support now rendered by the Civil Affairs Division of the War Department and the Division of Island Governments of the Navy Department.

b. A decision as to the agency of the Federal Government that will replace the U.S. Chiefs of Staff, which under the present arrangement is responsible for the operation of military government in all theaters. In my opinion the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee organization, after it has been formally recognized and after its secretariat has been enlarged and strengthened would be the appropriate agency to assume these responsibilities.

c. The substitution of civilian personnel from the highest level to the lowest for the officers and enlisted men who are now conducting military government in Germany, Austria, Venezia Giulia, Japan and Korea.

d. An effective organization to procure the thousands of civilians necessary to carry out this personnel replacement program.

You will of course recognize the desirability that the policy of civilianization be adopted by all four governments concerned in the control of Germany, and put into effect concurrently. The War Department will accordingly appreciate the necessary State Department action to obtain the required agreement to the proposal, to take effect at the earliest date that can be mutually agreed upon, in no event later than June 1st, 1946. It is my understanding that the British are in favor of civilian control and that their set-up is already half civilian. The attitude of Russia and that of France are unknown to me.

In carrying out the necessary steps to effect the transfer outlined above, the War Department will cooperate to the fullest extent at all stages, not only in consultation but in any other manner which will contribute to the objective.

Sincerely yours,

Robert P. Patterson

40. On October 31, at a press conference, President Truman endorsed and made public a letter written to him by General Eisenhower on October 26. In his letter, General Eisenhower reminded the President that in conversations in Frankfurt (presumably July 26) they had both agreed on the desirability of turning over U.S. participation in the Government of Germany to civilian authority as soon as possible. General Eisenhower, drawing a distinction between the civilian governmental and purely military occupational duties of American forces in Germany, recommended that this be done no later than June 1, 1946. The full text of General Eisenhower’s letter is in Department of State Bulletin, November 4, 1945, p. 711. See also Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Co., 1948), p. 441.