Office of the Historian

Lot 71–D 440, Box 192321

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of International Organization Affairs (Kotschnig)2

[Washington,] September 30, 1947.

Mr. Free3 will bring with him tomorrow the draft of a speech4 which gives quite clearly the position we believe might be taken in response to the Vyshinsky speech. We did not attempt to clear this speech throughout the Department as we realize that the Delegation in New York and particularly Mr. Bohlen will have a lot to say about the approach that should be taken.5

There is one point, however, on which we all agree down here and that is that it would be a mistake to meet Mr. Vyshinsky’s resolution by a counter resolution. For this reason, no attempt is being made in the Department to revise in any way the resolution drafted by Chester Williams.6

  1. Folder “Committee 1, Measures against Propaganda and Inciters of a New War.”↩
  2. Mr. Kotschnig’s conversation was with the Principal Executive Officer of the U.S. Delegation Staff of Advisers (Sandifer) in New York.↩
  3. Lloyd A. Free, Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs.↩
  4. Not printed; IO Files, Doc. US/A/C.1/221, October 1. Mr. Free took this paper to New York and presented it—as a preliminary position on the issue—to the “Working Team” of the Delegation Staff handling the question of the Vyshinsky resolution.↩
  5. During the first two weeks or so of October, several drafts of a proposed statement were prepared; and by the third or fourth draft the text bore little resemblance to that incorporated in the Department’s preliminary draft. Charles E. Bohlen was Counselor of the Department and at this time was attached to the Advisory Staff of the Delegation.↩
  6. Chester S. Williams, Public Liaison Officer of the Office of Public Information, United States Mission to the United Nations. This text was transmitted originally from the Mission to the Department in telegram Delga 9, September 27, 4 p.m., not printed. It was a short statement that apparently had no distribution, either in New York or in Washington, except to Dean Rusk, Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.↩