Telegram from President Harry S. Truman to Marshal Joseph Stalin

to S. DECLASSIFIED by authority of 15 AND OP services TOP SECRET PRIORITY Coff 2 JUNE 1945 InitialisHe Date f72 9559 FROM: OPNAV 4945 JUN 2 TO : ALUSNA, MOSCOW 1531 021452Z NCR UDAER NUMBER 280, TOP SECRET AND PERSONAL, FROM THE PRESIDENT FOR MARSHAL STALIN. I have given considerable thought to your message of May 27 in which you propose that our governments should at this time establish diplomatic relations with Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria and, at a later time, Hungary. Your suggestion shows that you feel, as I do, that we should endeavor to make the period of the armistice regimes as short as possible and also give prompt recognition to all efforts which may be made by those countries which have been our enemies to align themselves with the democratic principles of the Allied nations. I therefore agree that normal relations *with these countries should be established at the earliest feasible time. I am accordingly prepared to proceed at once with the exchange of diplomatic representatives with Finland, all the more readily, of course, 6JTA because that country has not been in a state of war with the United States, but also because through their elections and other political adjustments the Finnish people have demonstrated their genuine devotion to democratic prin- ciples and procedures. In Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria, however, I have not found the same encouraging signs. There, and particularly in the latter two countries, I have been disturbed to find governments which do not accord to all democratic elements of the people the rights of free expression, and which in their system of administration are, in my opinion, neither representative of or responsive to the will of the people. You already know, from Ambassador, page lot. 2