Office of the Historian

740.00119 Council/12–1545: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)

Washington, December 21, 1945—11 a.m.

2604. Secdel 30. For the Secretary. The President discussed with me this morning Whaley Eaton Foreign Letter and New York Times stories concerning reported disagreement between you and Senators from the Foreign Relations and Atomic Energy Committees (Deptel 2585, December 20, Secdel 2480). The President was most anxious that these reports and my telegram concerning his meeting with Senators December 14 (Deptel 2531, December 15, Secdel 10) should not alarm you. He asked me to make clear that he was not disturbed by these incidents and that the reports were being sent to you merely for your information and so that you would not be confused by any accounts of these matters you might receive indirectly. He approves of the proposal set forth in your tel 4196, December 17, Delsec 10.81 He suggests (but only if you think it would be helpful in promoting cooperation and useful discussion) that you also say to the Soviet [Page 710] Government at some appropriate time that United States Government does not purport to have solution to the very troublesome questions involved in the atomic energy problem, but is eager and willing to work with the Soviet Union and other nations toward the establishment as rapidly as possible of mutually acceptable arrangements for full collaboration in respect to the problem and that to this end the United States will be glad to consider such proposals as the Soviet Government may wish to make in respect to any phase of the problem and to discuss them with the Soviet Government both in the United Nations Commission and separately.

Acheson
  1. Not printed; it transmitted the texts of a story in the Whaley–Eaton news service of December 18 and a story by James Reston in the New York Times for December 20 (740.00119 Council/12–1545).↩
  2. Not printed (740.00119 Council/12–1745); it transmitted the text of the United States proposals on atomic energy presented to the Conference and included as enclosure 3 to the United States delegation minutes of the Third Formal Session, December 18, 4 p.m., p. 663.↩