Office of the Historian
No. 787

611.61/7–551

The Secretary of State to the President 1

[Washington,] July 5, 1951.

Memorandum for the President

Subject: McMahon–Ribicoff Resolution2

The McMahon–Ribicoff Concurrent Resolution (S. Con. Res. 11), adopted by the Senate on June 18 and by the House of Representatives on June 26, 1951, stated in the last paragraph “that the Congress request the President of the United States to call upon the Government of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics to acquaint the peoples of the Soviet Union with the contents of this resolution.”

There is attached for your consideration a draft message from you to President Shvernik of the U.S.S.R.3 transmitting the full text of this concurrent resolution “reaffirming the friendship of the American people for all peoples of the world, including the peoples of the Soviet Union” as set forth in House Report No. 632.

If you approve, we plan to instruct Ambassador Kirk in Moscow to transmit this message to the Soviet Foreign Office for delivery to President Shvernik. The text of your first person message would subsequently be released to the press and carried on all information media.

The proposed draft from you to President Shvernik includes much of the wording suggested by Senator McMahon and Congressman Ribicoff.

Dean Acheson

  1. This memorandum was submitted to Secretary Acheson by Assistant Secretary Barrett under cover of the following memorandum of July 3:

    “Attached for your signature is a memorandum for the President requesting his approval of the message to President Shvernik which we now propose to use in transmitting the McMahon–Ribicoff Resolution. You will note that the part dealing with the disarmament proposal has been omitted because EUR feels that this would be badly timed right now.

    “You will also note that the invitation to the Politburo has been omitted because this conflicts with our basic line and the basic line of the resolution itself to the effect that there is a wide difference between the Russian people and the Politburo.” (611.61/7–551)

    The earlier drafts of the message to Shvernik referred to here have not been found.

    ↩
  2. Supra.↩
  3. For text of the message to Shvernik, sent on July 7, see infra.↩