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

NLT-252 TOP SEGRET s. DECLASSIFIED by authority of state Dept lt to NARS 8-10-72 US AND senical for SEGRUT NL memo toNLT 14 APRIL 1945 PRIORITY 4-13-73 FROM: OPNAV laitials BKZ Octe 9/21/73 1250 TO : ALUSNA, LONDON 141857Z NCR NUMBER 4, TOP SECRET AND PERSONAL, FROM PRESIDENT TRUMAN TO PRIME MINISTER CHURCHILL. The following answer to your 943 to President Roosevelt is pre- pared in consultation with my Chiefs of Staff: General Wedemeyer reports that his conference with Admiral Mount- batten resulted in an agreement that the latter would notify Wedemeyer when he desired to conduct an operation in Indo-China and that the operation would not be conducted until approval was given by the Generalissimo. Wedemeyer's understanding is that the procedure will be for Mountbatten to notify General Carton De Wiart, who would inform Wedemeyer in his capacity as chief of staff to the Generalissimo. If the proposed operation from SEAC could not be integrated with China Theater plans, then Mount- batten agreed he would not undertake it. This agreement seems to be a satisfactory method of solving the problem of SEAC forces operating into the Generalissimo's theater and follows the accepted practice that theater commanders operating in contiguous theaters confine their operations to the limit of the theater unless the situation develops as to require one to send forces into an adjacent theater, and in such case he does so after coordination with the other commander. If, as in this case, the theater commanders concerned can effect the required coordination without getting a directive from higher authority, there appears no need to give them, instructions along the line FOR - 1 -