Office of the Historian

860F.001/4–245: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)

Washington, April 2, 1945—2 p.m.

769. Please arrange for the transmission of the following message37 from President Roosevelt to President Beneš to be delivered when [Page 434] the latter arrives in Košice or any other place in Czechoslovakia where the government may be established:38

“His Excellency

Dr. Eduard Beneš,

President of the Republic of Czechoslovakia

It is a source of great personal satisfaction to me to see your untiring efforts for the liberation of Czechoslovakia crowned by your return to its own soil.

I know what joy your homecoming must mean both to you and to every other patriotic Czechoslovak because it marks the restoration of your country to the dignity of independence and freedom from foreign oppression.

Your homecoming also symbolizes to all Americans the turning of the whole world from the years of conquest and strife to an era of justice and cooperation in a community of free nations dedicated to those same principles of democratic integrity which are so characteristic of Czechoslovakia itself. Franklin D. Roosevelt”39

Stettinius
  1. This message was released to the press on April 6; see Department of State Bulletin, April 8, 1945, p. 599.↩
  2. In telegram 1103, April 9, midnight, the Ambassador in the Soviet Union reported that he had transmitted the Presidents message to the Czechoslovak Chargé in Moscow by letter on April 4 and had asked that the message be delivered to President Beneš as requested by the President. It was further reported that on April 7, the Czechoslovak Chargé stated that he had not been able to confirm delivery of the message. The Ambassador thought that the delay might be accounted for by the fact that the Czechoslovak Chargé’s communications with his government had to go through Soviet military channels. (860F.001/4–945) In telegram 1139, April 12, 2 p.m., the Ambassador in the Soviet Union reported that the Czechoslovak Chargé in Moscow still had no confirmation either of the receipt in Košice or the delivery of President Roosevelt’s message to President Beneš (860F.001/4–1245).↩
  3. The message was initialed by President Roosevelt.↩