Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, Volume III

740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–1645: Telegram

The Ambassador in Frame (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

Paris, May 16, 1945—3 p.m.
[Received 10:15 p.m.]

2674. From Murphy. Operational orders have now been issued by PRD⁸⁵ SHAEF banning further interviews or statements which thus far have enabled such as Göring,⁸⁶, Schacht,⁸⁷ Dittmar⁸⁸ to air their personal political views via American press or radio.

My concern had been that such statements would only enable Wehrmacht and Party to blame one another for Germany’s defeat and thus foster a new stab in the back legend. Moreover, it seemed to me that reports might reach the German people that we were indulging such statements and could well lead to undermining of our authority there. PED further informs me that the reaction among the correspondents themselves was strongly against the appropriateness of such interviews even though one American news service was reported seeking to get Göring to write his memoirs for them. [Murphy.]

Caffery

85. Public Relations Division, SHAEF.
86. Hermann W. Göring, President of the Reichstag, Minister-President of Prussia, Reich Minister for Air, Commander in Chief of the German Air Forces, Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, designated successor to Hitler, Reichsmarschall.
87. Hjalmar Schacht, former President of the Reichsbank and Reich Minister of Economics.
88. Presumably Lt. Gen. Kurt Dittmar, German Army radio spokesman.