Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/6–348

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas (Saltzman) to the Under Secretary of State (Lovett)

secret
[Washington,] June 3, 1948.

Secretary Draper has seen Senators Bridges and Gurney, and Secretary Royall has seen Mr. Andrews to explain the German program agreed upon in London.1 I was with Mr. Draper when he saw Senators Bridges and Gurney. Senator Bridges appeared quite favorable to the program as outlined. Senator Gurney was on the whole favorable to [Page 757] it, though he expressed a little concern about the gamble involved in, possible provocation of overt Soviet reaction and said that in view of our military program, it would have been desirable to postpone the program for about eight months if other circumstances had appeared to allow such postponement. I explained to him that the matter of timing had received most careful consideration and it has been our belief that the present situation should not be permitted to stand still for such a period as eight months and that the calculated risk involved was worth taking.

Secretary Draper asked me whether the President has been informed of this program and said that in the event he has not, it is Secretary Royall’s recommendation that he be informed.2

Charles E. Saltzman
  1. Presumably the “agreed upon” program under reference is that described in telegram 2425, June 2, from London, supra.↩
  2. A marginal note handwritten by Carlisle Humelsine at this paragraph reads as follows: “President notified and approved”.↩