811.001 Truman, H. S./10–747: Telegram
The Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Cannon) to the Secretary of State
2065. Have today written following letter to Velebit Acting Foreign Minister:
“I was shocked to read in this morning’s Borba an article put together in the most insulting language to present a series of vicious attacks on the person of the President of the United States.
I assume this text to be reprint of the scurrilous article which recently appeared in the Literturnaja Gazeta of Moscow, and I am sure that you know that when that article was first published the American [Page 846] Ambassador at Moscow requested in a personal letter to Mr. Molotov a disavowal of the article.1
In the light of the notoriety of the article as a result of the protest of the American Ambassador at Moscow, I can only consider its republication in Borba, the official organ of the Yugoslav Communist Party, as a deliberate and intentional offense to the President and to the people of the United States.
In view of the special position of the newspaper Borba in the Yugoslav press, I cannot believe that the Yugoslav Government can remain indifferent to an article of such import in international relations appearing in this paper. On September 21, you assured me that the Yugoslav Government was giving attention to the offensive press campaign against the United States, and drew my notice to the suppression of a recent periodical. In the light of these assurances, I find that I must request you to inform me of the present position of the Yugoslav Government, with particular reference to this most recent and most insulting example.
Accept, etc.”
- Far the exchange of notes on September 25 between the American Ambassador in the Soviet Union Walter Bedell Smith and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov regarding the libelous personal attack on President Truman in an article in the Soviet journal Literary Gazette, see Department of State Bulletin, October 12, 1947, p. 743. For additional documentation on this subject, see pp. 588–590, passim.↩