Office of the Historian

Truman Papers

No. 1277
The Joint Chiefs of Staff to the President
top secret
Washington [Babelsberg], 21 July 1945.

Memorandum for the President

It is requested that the appended memorandum,1 which is self-explanatory, be presented to Generalissimo Stalin.

At the Yalta conference a proposal was made to provide additional weather stations in the Siberian area with special U. S. equipment for upper air soundings and both the equipment and U. S. personnel to operate it were offered. The Russians approved the establishment of the stations and the use of the U. S. equipment but stated that they did not want the U. S. personnel.2 Most of this equipment has been shipped.

The Soviets have in the past been most reluctant to allow U. S. personnel to operate within their boundaries. It is believed that your personal intercession is necessary to obtain this permission.

In view of the vital importance of accurate weather forecasts to the success of forthcoming operations, which forecasts can best be produced by U. S. personnel, the acceptance by Generalissimo Stalin [Page 1326] of our proposal to establish and man the two weather controls indicated in attached memorandum should be strongly urged.

If, however, Stalin persists in his refusal to admit U. S. personnel to Siberia for this purpose and offers to man these facilities with Russian personnel, agreement to his counter proposal, though far from satisfactory, will be better than nothing.

For the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
William D Leahy

Fleet Admiral, U. S. Navy,
Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy.
  1. See document No. 1278.↩
  2. See Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 393, 399, 733–734, 758, 760, 764, 836–837, 840.↩