Department of the Army Files

No. 869
The Deputy Military Governor, United States Zone in Germany (Clay) to the Secretary of State1
secret

Memorandum for the Secretary of State

General Eisenhower, after conference with the President, instructed me to prepare for submission to the President, a proposed directive which is attached hereto2 and which would be sent to each Zone Commander by his head of government. The proposed delegation of authority in the final paragraph, if accepted by all four governments, would facilitate transaction of business by the Group Council.

The specific instructions in paragraphs numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 are believed to accord fully with decisions reached at this and previous conferences. However, it may be necessary to modify portions of these paragraphs to conform to decisions now in the making. Also, in sending this directive, if approved, the several policy papers accepted at the Berlin conference could be appended to the directive.

General Eisenhower feels that this directive would be most helpful to him and to the Group Council.

Lucius D. Clay
  1. Printed from a certified carbon copy which bears the manuscript notation: “A similar memo went to Adm. Leahy”.
  2. The attached draft is the same as document No. 870 except for one variation described in footnote 2 to that document.