Editorial Note
The transcript of President Truman’s press and radio conference of April 24, 1952, states that “in 1945 he had to send an ultimatum to the head of the Soviet Union to get out of Persia. The President said that they got out because we were in a position to meet a situation of that kind.” The announcement led to a series of questions and answers at the conference during which the President reiterated his statement.
Later the same day, a White House spokesman made an oral statement to the press which explained that “the President was using the term ultimatum in a non-technical layman sense. He said that the President was referring to United States leadership in the United Nations, particularly in the Security Council and through diplomatic channels, in the Spring of 1946, which was the major factor in bringing about Soviet withdrawal from Iran.”
No documentation on the sending of an ultimatum to the Soviet Union has been found in the Department files or in the files of the [Page 349] Department of Defense, nor have several of the highest officers of the Department in 1946 been able to affirm the sending of an ultimatum.
Expressions of President Truman’s views on this matter are published in his Memoirs, volume II, pages 94–95 (1956) and in Truman Speaks, page 71 (1960).