Memorandum from Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew to President Harry S. Truman, Current Foreign Developments

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TOP SECRET DECLASSIFIED (E) 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) 10, or 1972 E.O. letter, Aug. 6.26.25 Dept. NLTHANAS of State Date By May 29, 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Current Foreim Developments Venezia Giulia. The US reply to Tito on Venezia Giulia was approved on May 26. It hes still not been presented. The reason is that SAC does not want Pola and the western part of the Istrian peninsula in his AMG area, though this was listed in US-UK notes of May 15 to Tito and on May 25 the British again agreed that Pola and western Istrin should be under AMG. This is the most Italian part of all Venezia Giulia. In other words, it is the aren which more than any other exemplifies the principle of fair territorial adjustment which the US hns so earnestly been striving to maintein. What concerned the US was the principle that a dis- puted ares, to which Italy clearly had some rights a.8 well a.8 Yugoslavie, should not be completely overrun by Tito-- contrary to his pledged word of February==and be forcibly made part of Yugoslavia by the totalitarian tectica every impartial observer has reported the Yugoslavs using in Venezia Giulia. As SAC himself told his troops on May 19, Tito's tactics "are all too reminiscent of Hitler, Mussolini and Japen". SAC seems to have forgotten that message now that he has his convenient Trieste-Villach line of communications to Austria more or loss assured by our = CINATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE* 1 strong