Telegram from President Harry S. Truman to Prime Minister Winston Churchill

NLT- 325 SECRET S. DECLASSIFIED by authority of 101 NATIONAL actightened is - SERVICE* MAY TOP SECRET Cage 2 JUNE 1945 PRIORITY Date:07:23 9560 FROM: OPNAV 1945 JUN 215 TO : ALUSNA, LONDON 021458Z NCR NUMBER 54, PERSONAL AND TOP SECRET, FROM THE PRESIDENT FOR PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL. On May 27 Marshal Stalin proposed that our Governments establish diplomatic relations with Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria and, at a later time, Hungary. He said he was sending you a similar message. I am today replying to him as follows: QUOTE. I have given considerable thought to your message of May 27 in which you propose that our governments should at this time establish dip- lomatic 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, 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. TOP SECRET Page / of 2