Memorandum of Conversation with President Harry S. Truman, Dr. Karel Petrzelka, Mr. Karel Brus, John F. Simmons, and K. Charles Sheldon

CONF DEPARTMENT OF STATE DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 Memorandum of Conversation State Dept. Guidelines, March 6, 1982 By DEB NLT, Date 10-17-85 DATE: October 24, 1952 SUBJECT: Call on the President of the newly appointed Ambassador of Czechoslovakia PARTICIPANTS: The President His Excellency Dr. Karel Petrzelka, Ambassador of Czecho- slovakia Mr. Karel Brus, Third Secretary, Embassy of Czechoslovakia Interpreter) John F. Simmons, Chief of Protocol COPIES TO: Mr. K. Charles Sheldon, Division of Research for USSR and Eastern Europe (Interpreter) Whi te House (original) Secretary of State EUR HARRY S. TRUMAN LIBRARX EE epo 1-1493 The newly appointed Ambassador of Czechoslovakia called on the President at 12 noon today in order to present his credentials. He entered, presented his documents to the President and awaited the President's first words. The President said that relations between Czechoslovakia and the United States were not good. He spoke of his own First. World War ex- perience, saying that he liked and admired the first Czechoslovak Government, formed after that War. He had always thought particularly highly of its democratic and friendly character. This situation, how- ever, was not repeated after the Second World War, following which the present Czechoslovak Government came into existence. He described this Government as having been formed on the basis of the outrageous treat- ment which Czechoslovakia received on the part of the Soviet Union. The Ambassador said that he did not like to contradict the Presi- - dent, but that Czechoslovakias relations with the Soviet Union were those of an ally. He felt it necessary to set forth his view that the Soviet Union's actions were in no way outrageous. They occurred, he said, in a spirit of alliance and of the constructive programs, based on the friendly, democratic relations between the two countries. The President said that he could not agree but that, if he knew his recent history well, the Czechoslovak Government is no longer democratic at all, but rather is a totalitarian state. He said that he could