701.7111/4–2046
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Truman
Pursuant to our note of February 14, 1946 to the Rumanian Government, extending recognition to that Government on the basis of assurances previously given us, we have now been approached through our Political Representative in Bucharest with the request that we signify the agreement of the United States Government to the appointment of Dr. Dumitru Bagdasar as Rumanian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. Dr. Bagdasar is an executive of the National Popular Party, a Communist organization. He was born in 1893 near Galati, Rumania of Armenian parentage, studied medicine in Bucharest, and has been a surgeon and teacher at the University of Bucharest. Through the facilities of the Rockefeller Foundation he also studied medicine in the United States.
It has been reported that Dr. Bagdasar was nominated for the post of Minister to the United States over the protest of numerous political elements in Rumania, including the King, and that he is supported only by the Communists. However, while these circumstances might in normal times justify our declining to accept Dr. Bagdasar, I believe after careful consideration that it is advisable at this time to inform the Rumanians that his appointment is agreeable to us. I am particularly motivated to this conclusion by a desire to settle, so far as possible, questions which may be outstanding and which will affect the conclusion of the peace treaties.
Accordingly, if you approve, we will send appropriate instructions to the United States Political Representative in Bucharest to inform the Rumanian Government that the appointment of Dr. Bagdasar is acceptable to the United States.66
- Notation on the original: “Approved Harry Truman”. Telegram 261, April 24, to Bucharest, directed Mr. Berry to inform the Rumanian Foreign Minister that President Truman had approved the acceptance of Bagdasar as the Rumanian Minister to the United States (701.7111/4–2446).↩