740.00119 Control (Rumania)/3–645
The Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (Vyshinsky) to the American Representative in Rumania (Berry)98
Dear Mr. Berry: In answer to your letters of February 28 and March 1, I inform you that the contents of these letters were transmitted by me to the Soviet Government.
As for the essence of the questions touched upon in these letters, I should like to remind you that in my conversation with you on February 28,99 I presented to you the point of view of the Soviet Government according to which in the new Rumanian Government there should be represented all the truly democratic forces of Rumania and that such a Government should be able to assure in Rumania, which is in the rear of the Red Army, order and tranquillity, and likewise to assure the honorable and conscientious fulfillment of the conditions of the Armistice Agreement. In addition to this, I consider it necessary to draw your attention to the fact that the Crimea Conference demands the uprooting of the last traces of Nazism and Fascism, which should constitute likewise the extremely important task of the new Rumanian Government.
In connection with points two and three of your letter, the principles expressed in them, as is obvious, cannot call forth any objections.
Very sincerely yours,
- Copy transmitted to the Department as enclosure 5 to despatch 147, March 6, from Bucharest, not printed. Representative Berry quoted this letter at length in his telegram 168, March 6, 1 p.m., and concluded as follows: “From this letter I infer that Vyshinsky has had his instructions confirmed by Moscow. It seems clear he plans to install a government that is wholly or predominantly NDF. It seems clear, too, that one of the first tasks of such a government will be the purging of those elements which local Communists call ‘Fascist’ and we ‘democratic’. According to hand bills that are now being distributed, among such elements are men as Maniu, Bratianu and Radescu. If our Government officially desires to extend a hand to save such people, and particularly Maniu, who during the entire German period was the symbol of resistance, it is not too early to begin its efforts.” (740.00119 Control (Rumania)/3–645).↩
- There is no record of a Vyshinsky–Berry meeting on February 28. The first meeting between the two men appears to be that reported in telegram 151, March 1, p, 489.↩