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

NLT-266 $. DECLASSIFIED by authority of U.S. STECURDS TOP SECRET COVER: PRIORITY Vel.II P.444 26 APRIL 1945 Initials HC Date 87-73 3119 1945DAPR 25 TO : ALUSNA, LONDON 261456Z NCR NUMBER 13, PERSONAL AND TOP SECRET, FOR THE PRIME MINISTER FROM THE PRESIDENT. Referring to your Number 13, it appears to me, particularly in view of the fact that the Armies now in the Soviet zone are American, that any agreement entered into regarding withdrawal to the designated post hostility zones of occupation in Germany and Austria should be tripartite. I therefore suggest for your consideration that you address the fol- lowing message to Marshal Stalin and to me: QUOTE. 1. The Anglo-American armies will soon make contact in Germany with Soviet forces, and the approaching end of German resistance makes it necessary that the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union decide upon an orderly procedure for the occupation by their forces of the zones which they will occupy in Germany and in Austria. 2. Our immediate task is the final defeat of the German Army. During this period the boundaries between the forces of the three Allies must be decided by Commanders in the field, and will be governed by operational con- siderations and requirements. It is inevitable that our armies will in this phase find themselves in occupation of territory outside the boundaries of the ultimate occupational zones. 3. When the fighting is finished, the next task is for the Allied Control Commissions to be set up in Berlin and Vienna, and for the forces of the Allies to be redisposed and to take over their respective occupational - 1 -