Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Marshal Stalin to President Roosevelt¹

[Moscow,] June 11, 1943.

Personal and secret message of Premier J. V. Stalin to President Roosevelt

Your message in which you inform me about certain decisions on the questions of strategy made by you and Mr. Churchill I received on June 4.² I thank you for the message.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Is it necessary to say what painful and negative impression will be made in the Soviet Union, upon its people and its Army, by the new postponement of the second front, and by leaving our Army, which has made so many sacrifices, without expected serious support from the British-American Armies?

As to the Soviet Government, it does not find it possible to agree with this decision, made, besides, without its participation and without attempt to discuss jointly this most important question, and which decision may result in grave consequences for the future progress of the war.

1. Apparently received from the Soviet Embassy, Washington. The entire document is printed in Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 70.
2. Roosevelt’s message to Stalin, June 2, 1943; ibid., p. 67.