Budapest Legation File: 711.9 ACC
The Chief of the United States Military Representation on the Allied Control Commission for Hungary (Key) to the United States Representative in Hungary (Schoenfeld)
Dear Mr. Minister: This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of 21 August36 inclosing the text of the proposed Statutes for the second period of the ACC’s activities37 as received from the Department of State and note that it is desired that “discussions should immediately be initiated by you for the revision of the Allied Control Commission’s Statute and that you should press, insofar as possible, for the adoption of the points outlined in the inclosure.”
As stated in the copy of message No. 305, dated 16 August,38 which you discussed with me, these proposals are based upon the original draft39 which I submitted to the War and State Departments in June. These proposals, in substance, were presented by me to the ACC at its regular meeting on 5 June. At that time I stated that since hostilities with Germany had ceased my Government expected a revision of the Statutes which had been agreed upon only for the period of hostilities. I wrote the Chairman on 4 June,40 pointing out that the coming meeting would be the Commission’s first gathering since the end of hostilities and consequently the first meeting during the second period of the Armistice with Hungary, I asked the Chairman to kindly indicate at the coming meeting his idea of the organization and procedure which he considers appropriate for the second period. In the same letter I offered to give my personal views regarding new Statutes to govern during the second period. At the meeting following the Marshal expressed some surprise at my letter and asked me to give my ideas. These ideas were, in substance, the same as those contained in my written proposals of 6 June which I personally delivered to the War and State Departments.
The directive which the Chairman issued on 11 July embodied some of the recommendations which I made, particularly the one in which the concurrence of the representatives of the three governments would be obtained before directives were issued to the Hungarian authorities. [Page 856] The Soviet directives limited this to important subjects, but even as modified has not been fully observed by them.
At last night’s meeting I presented, or rather attempted to present, the proposals returned to me by the War and State Departments as the basis for a revision of the Statutes as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. The Chairman vehemently objected, stating that the procedure contained in his letter of 14 August was not a proposal for discussion but was the procedure agreed upon by the three governments at Potsdam. I pointed out that the text of the protocol agreed upon stated that “revision of the procedures of the ACC would now be undertaken …41 and accepting as a basis … the Soviet Government’s proposals for Hungary as annexed hereto.” Despite this, the Chairman refused to consider them as proposals but insisted that they were the Statutes agreed upon and that any modification would have to be made by our governments. I stated for the record that my Government considered them only as proposals and would not accept them as the Statutes for the second period. I have wired the War Department a report on this matter.
It is regrettable that the proposals returned to me with your letter of 21 August were not accepted at Potsdam as a basis for revision instead of the Soviet proposals of 11 July. If we are required to operate under the Soviet directive and continue in the subordinate role which we have been forced to adopt here it will result in the impairment of our country’s prestige and in the light of recent events will be personally distasteful to me.42
Very sincerely,
Major General, U. S. Army Chief
- Not printed.↩
- Ante, p. 842.↩
- Telegram 305, August 16, 1945, 2 p.m. to Budapest, not printed; it gave the text of section XI of the Protocol of the Proceedings of the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, regarding the revised ACC procedure in Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, and referred to Annex I of the Protocol of the Proceedings which was Marshal Voroshilov’s letter of July 11 to General Key. For text of the Protocol, see Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. ii, p. 1478.↩
- For the original text of General Key’s draft statutes of the Allied Control Commission for Hungary, see ibid., vol. i, p. 375.↩
- General Key’s letter of June 4 to Marshal Voroshilov is not printed.↩
- Omissions indicated in the original letter.↩
- The contents of the last two paragraphs of this letter were summarized and partially quoted in telegram 471, August 23, 7 p.m. from Budapest (871.6363/8-2345).↩