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    "localId": "214916482",
    "label": "Message from the State Department to President Harry S. Truman",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Message from the State Department to President Harry S. Truman",
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        "Clark M. Clifford Papers",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 27,
            "logicalDate": "1948-09-27",
            "month": 9,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-cmc/200613/1701240/1701240-18-007.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "- 7\nZones of Occupation, the Soviet Government, while neither affirming\nnor withdrawing the demand for the particular restrictions put forward\nby the Soviet Military Governor during the discussions in Berlin and\nconfirmed in its reply of September 18, introduces another requirement\nto the effect that transport by air of commercial freight and passengers\nmust be placed under the control of the Soviet Command.\nThe Soviet Government's note of September 24, therefore, not\nonly ignores the request of the three Governments that the blockade\nmeasures should be removed in order that conditions may be established\nwhich would permit the continuation of discussions; it also seeks to\nimpose restrictions of transport and communications between Berlin and\nthe Nestern Zones which would place the maintenance of the forces of\noccupation of the three Western Occupying Powers and the whole life\nof the Berlin population within the arbitrary power of the Soviet Command,\nthus enabling the Soviet Military Authorities to reimpose the blockade\nat any moment in the future if they so desired.\n12. Accordingly, it is apparent that the Soviet Government had no\nintention of carrying out the undertakings to which it had subscribed\nduring the Moscow discussions in August. In the face of the expressed\nreadiness of the Governments of the United States, France and the\nUnited Kingdom to negotiate with the Soviet Government all outstanding\nquestions regarding Berlin and Germany as a whole in an atmosphere\nfree from duress, the Soviet Government has, in fact, persisted in using\nduress. It has resorted to acts of force rather than to the processes\nof peaceful settlement. It has imposed and maintained illegal restrictions\namounting to a blockade of Berlin. It has failed to work out in good\nfaith Four-Power arrangements for the control of the currency of that\nCity. Even while the Western Occupying Powers were seeking agreement for\nmeasures to implement the understandings reached in Moscow theSoviet\nMilitary authorities condoned and encouraged attempts to overthrow the\nlegally constitued municipal goverment of Berlin. These actions are\nplainly attempts to nullify unilaterally the rights of the Western\nOccupying Powers in Berlin, which are co-equal with those of the Soviet\nUnion and like them are derived from the defeat and unconditional\nsurrender of Germany and from Four-Power agreements to which the"
}