740.00119 EW/10–1344: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan)
2498. The text of the Soviet draft of armistice terms for Hungary, as put together on the basis of your 3933 October 13, has been submitted to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for their comment with respect to the military aspects. The Department cannot, of course, authorize signature of the armistice in the name of this Government until clearance [Page 919] from the Joint Chiefs is received. There is given in the following paragraphs, however, for your guidance in the negotiations, the position of the Department on those points in the Soviet text to which it takes exception on political grounds. In suggesting the degree of insistence on the various points which we wish you to raise, we are taking into account the three recommendations made in your 3965 October 17.53
The Department is reserving its further instructions regarding the article on reparations pending your reply to Harriman’s inquiry made in a separate telegram.54
The Department does not approve the present wording of article 19 on the Allied Control Commission, although the first sentence is acceptable. As in the case of Bulgaria, we should like it clearly stated in the armistice itself or in an annex or protocol thereto that the “general direction of the Allied (Soviet) High Command” of the activities of the Commission is to endure only so long as hostilities against Germany continue. The Department’s view on this question is set forth in numbered paragraph 2 of its 2437 October 14 midnight. See also in this connection Department’s 2490 of today’s date.55 You should support this view strongly, though we would not make a decisive issue of this article.
On the matter of signature of the armistice, while the Department prefers signature by SACMED as well as by the Soviet Commander as suggested in the penultimate paragraph of Department’s 2403 October 10,56 and supposes that the Joint Chiefs will favor it, as in the case of Bulgaria, we are not in a position to instruct you to take an unyielding stand on this point.
You will recall our objection, in the case of the Rumanian and Bulgarian armistices, to the phrase “in particular to the Soviet Union” (article 16 of the new draft). We hope the Soviet Government can be prevailed upon, as in the case of the Bulgarian terms, to dispense with such language as would give special and conspicuous application to the Soviet Union. We attach considerable importance to the implications of this article.
On the following three minor points you should suggest modifications of the Soviet text, but should not insist on them if the British and Soviet representatives are not disposed to accept them.
- (1)
- Provision should be made in article 3 for the withdrawal of Hungarian officials as well as Hungarian armed forces;
- (2)
- The provisions of article 7 should apply to the return of property to Czechoslovakia and to Yugoslavia as well as to the USSR;
- (3)
- We should like to see included in the armistice an article obligating Hungary to contribute to general relief and rehabilitation measures.