740.00119 E.W./5–1445: Telegram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan ) to the Secretary of State

[Extracts]35

1563. Personal for Ambassador Harriman.36 There are several matters connected with our work which are causing me some concern. [Page 814] I am not wiring about them officially for fear that I might unwittingly put statements on record which are counter to your views. I hope you will not mind, however, if I put my thoughts frankly before you in this manner for whatever use you can make of them.

. . . . . . .

4. Control Commissions in Bulgaria37 and Hungary. Barnes38 has already raised the question of the change in status of the Control Commission in Bulgaria with the termination of hostilities against Germany. The same question will doubtless arise in Hungary in the very near future. In my opinion, the Soviet Government will probably not take the initiative at all in this respect, and if pushed only by our usual methods, it will consent to no more than changes in form which would have no real effect in practice. I believe that our only hope of getting anywhere would be to make up our minds that if we do not get full tripartite treatment we will withdraw not only our participation in the Control Commissions but our political representatives as well. (Consular representatives might be left). If this threat works and causes the Russians to grant us equal participation, so much the better. If it does not, then I think it preferable that our people get out anyway. Their presence in those countries thus far has not had any appreciable influence on the course of events there, nor has it been effective in protecting American interests. On the other hand, it has been effective in misleading public opinion both in the United States and in the countries concerned and in saddling our government with a share of the responsibility for policies which have nothing to do with American ideals or American interests.

If we are not prepared to take a strong line and back it up with some such action as I have suggested, then it might be better not to press the matter at all beyond a certain point, since to do so would only constitute a further demonstration of our weakness.

Kennan
  1. For the portion here omitted, dealing with the activities of the Moscow Reparations Commission and the Polish question, see vol. iii, p. 1211, and vol. v, p. 295, respectively.
  2. Ambassador Harriman was in the United States at this time.
  3. For documentation regarding the post-armistice problems of occupation and control of Bulgaria and the setting up of the Allied Control Commission for Bulgaria, see pp. 135 ff.
  4. Maynard B. Barnes, United States Representative in Bulgaria.