Roosevelt Papers
The Presidents Naval Aide (Brown) to the Presidents Military Aide and Secretary (Watson)1
To General Watson.
You will please send for the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires and give him the following in your capacity as Secretary to the President, which he may feel at liberty to transmit to Marshal Stalin.
“The Marshal’s message to the President and the Prime Minister2 has been transmitted to the President, who has left the conference in Quebec and because of absence, will not be available until early next week.
“Any reply by the Marshal to the telegram from the President and the Prime Minister to the Marshal relating to a joint meeting will of course be transmitted to them.”
- The original of this message, all of it in Roosevelt’s handwriting, contained the signature “Roosevelt” and the following concluding sentence: “Do not tell him this is sent by the President.” These words were stricken out, and the signature “Wilson Brown” was added by Roosevelt. The copy of the message as received in the White House bears the notation: “acted on by Gen Watson A M 25th. R[obert] W B[ogue]”.↩
- This is the message of August 22, 1943, printed in Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 84. According to Churchill (p. 94), Roosevelt was “very much offended at the tone of this message”, which concerned the negotiations for the armistice with Italy.↩