Office of the Historian

Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270: Telegram

General Marshall to Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer

Washington, 24 March 1946.

81922. Mr. Byrnes anticipates necessity for making statement in New York on Tuesday or Wednesday at meeting of Security Council95 regarding reduction of American Command in China. This apropos of recent Soviet statement of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Manchuria by 15 April.96 Also apropos of Mr. Byrnes statements regarding presence of American troops in China which he made in Moscow.97

Please rush reply to me as to recent status so far as your side of the matter pertains to close out of China theater by 1 May and commencement [Page 856] of reduction of Marines by regiments on 1 April. I am taking this up with Hull98 here to find out complications on this side.

It might be well for you to propose exact wording of statement by Mr. Byrnes. In the event that your Chief of Staff receives this in your absence, he must nevertheless give me reply without delay.

  1. Of the United Nations.↩
  2. See telegram No. 552, March 23, 4 p.m., from the Counselor of Embassy in China, vol. ix, p. 595.↩
  3. Department of State Bulletin, December 30, 1945, pp. 1031, 1036.↩
  4. Lt. Gen. John E. Hull, Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations Division, War Department.↩