Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "213875861",
    "label": "Memorandum from Sidney Souers to President Harry S. Truman, with Attached National Security Council Report 20/1, A Report to the National Security Council by the Department of State on United States Objectives with Respect to Russia",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/213875861"
}

{
    "id": "213875861",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/213875861",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from Sidney Souers to President Harry S. Truman, with Attached National Security Council Report 20/1, A Report to the National Security Council by the Department of State on United States Objectives with Respect to Russia",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/213875861",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750596/750596-04-001.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750596/750596-04-001.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750596/750596-04-001.jpg",
    "imageCount": 62,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/213875861",
    "naId": 213875861,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 18,
            "logicalDate": "1948-08-18",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 44,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750596/750596-04-044.jpg",
    "mediaId": "81968816ccdc979e",
    "ocrText": "TOP SECRET\na successful military action on our part. We must face frankly\nthe fact that we cannot answer this question at this time.\nThe answer depends almost everywhere on the type of regime which\nwould be left, in the wake of military operations, in the partic-\nular area in question. Should this regime be one which held out at\nleast reasonably favorable prospects of observing the principles of\nliberalism in internal affairs and moderation in foreign policy, it\nmight be possible to leave under its authority most, if not all, of\nthe territories gained by the Soviet Union in the recent war. If,\nas is more probable, little dependence could be placed on the lib-\neralism and moderation of a post-hostilities Russian authority, it\nmight be necessary to alter these borders quite extensively. This\nmust simply be chalked up as one of the questions which will have\nto be left open until the development of military and political\nevents in Russia reveals to us the full nature of the post-war\nframework in which we will have to act.\nWe then have the question of the Soviet myth and of the ideo-\nlogical authority which the Soviet Government now exerts over people\nbeyond the present satellite area. In the first instance, this\nwill of course depend on the question of whether or not the present\nAll-Union Communist Party continues to exert authority over any por-\ntion of the present Soviet territory, in the aftermath of another\nwar. We have already seen that we cannot rule out this possibility.\nShould communist authority disappear, this question is automatically\nsolved. It must be assumed, however, that in any event an\nNSC 20/1\n- 36 -\nTOP SECRET"
}