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

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

President Roosevelt to Prime Minister Churchill¹

secret
priority

[Washington,] 5 November 1943.

Number 410 personal and secret from the President for the Former Naval Person. Your number 488.²

I am sorry that the uncertainty of Hull’s return and no reply from U. J. have made my plans so uncertain. Hull has now decided to come back by plane and should be here by the 10th.³ Therefore I expect to get away by the 11th and get to O by the 19th or 20th.

I think it best to go straight by air to Cairo with perhaps one short stop. Perhaps you could arrange to meet me in O and we could go on together.

I think it simpler in every way for the Combined Staffs and planners to meet in Cairo just as soon as my people, most of whom will start when I do, can get there. Of course they and we will have many meetings before the Russians or Chinese meet with us.

In regard to Chiang, Somervell who is just back from that very successful meeting in Chungking at which Dickie was present,⁴ thinks you and I should see Chiang before we see U. J. or Molotov.⁵ Therefore I think I should ask Chiang to get to Cairo by the 22nd.

In regard to U. J. I am begging him to meet us for even one day in Basra⁶ or at the point of the railway just south of the mountains.⁷ This would take very little of our time and his, and Molotov could then proceed back to Cairo with us. This jaunt into Persia would be let us say between the 25th and the 28th.

You and I can arrange for Tunis or Italian visits after the Egyptian campaign is over. All goes well.

Roosevelt

1. Sent to the United States Naval Attach, London, via Navy channels.
2. Ante, p. 64.
3. A cable of November 3, 1943, from Hull to Roosevelt, sent from Tehran via military channels, read, in part: “Planning airplane flight straight thru via Dakar and should reach Washington by 9th, even allowing for delays should certainly arrive Washington by 11th.” Hull actually arrived at Washington November 10, 1943, was met by Roosevelt at the airport, and went over the highlights of the Moscow Conference with him “on the way to the White House” and in their conversation the following morning; Hull, vol. ii, p. 1313.
4. Meeting of Somervell, Stilwell, and Mountbatten (“Dickie”) with Chiang and other Chinese officials, in the third week of October 1943; see The Stilwell Papers, pp. 231–235.
5. For Somervell’s memorandum of October 30, 1943, conveying a message from Chiang to Roosevelt, see ante, p. 56.
6. See Roosevelt’s telegram of November 2, 1943, to Hull, ante, p. 62.
7. No record has been found of a Roosevelt message to Stalin suggesting that the Conference be held at the point of the railway just south of the mountains, which would be in Iran.