Memorandum from Secretary of State James Byrnes to President Harry S. Truman

DEGLASSIFIED ADDRESS OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS TO E.O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) OT 083 THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON, D. c. Dept. a State letter, Aug. 10, 1872 By NLTTHE WARS Date 6:34-25 DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON July 4, 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: American Participation in the Supervision of Greek Elections. The question of American participation in the supervision of Greek elections raises an issue of the first importance. This Government has repeatedly affirmed its purpose, as stated by President Roosevelt in his Message on the State of the Union of January 6, 1945, "to respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live and to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them" We have further asserted an obligation to see to it that the right of the peoples of the liberated areas to choose their own government and institutions should not be defeated by interim governmental authorities. President Roosevelt stated this obligation, in the same speech, in the following words: TROMAN "Until conditions permit a genuine ex- pression of the peoples' will, we and our ARCHIVES 'NATIONAL SERVICE RECORDS AND have a duty, which we cannot ignore, to use our influence to the end that no temporary or pro- visional authorities in the liberated countries block the eventual exercise of the peoples right freely to choose the government and institutions under which, as free men, they are to live". This general obligation on the part of the Allies was specifically formulated at the Crimea Conference. In his report of March 1, 1945, on that Conference, President Roosevelt stated that the three powers had agreed that the political and economic problem "of any area liberated from the Nazi conquest, or of any former Axis satellite, are a joint responsibility of FOPVICTORY all three governments". The three powers, he con- BUY tinued, would endeavor to see that interim governing UNITED STATES SAVINGS BONDS authorities AND STAMPS