Office of the Historian

RSC Lot 60–D 224, Box 100

Extract From the Diary of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State, December 1, 1944–July 3, 1945

Week of 8–14 April, 1945.
(Section Nine)

. . . . . . .

Various Developments Abroad

Dependent Peoples—On Sunday the eighth I made a note that Mr. Hayden Raynor would review with me the trusteeship memorandum which was to be sent to the President the following day,47 and I further noted on Monday that “I am very dissatisfied with the memorandum I read last night on Trusteeships. I want the memorandum worded so that I will remain impersonal on the matter and not be in a position to have to make a defense of the State Department [Page 210] position.” I discussed the question over the phone twice with Secretary Forrestal on Monday. First, I told him that the memorandum approved by him48 did not fit in with my views, and we decided the President should assemble everyone who was concerned and thrash the matter out. Later I discussed more fully with Secretary Forrestal my enforced position—a position taken by the Department without full consultation with me—on the U. S. policy for trusteeships. Forrestal said that he and Secretary Stimson would write me a letter49 stating the views held by them and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thanking him, I said that thereafter I could discuss the situation with President Roosevelt.

At the Tuesday meeting of my Staff Committee I reported that the President had replied50 to our Trusteeships memorandum sent to him on April 9, agreeing with our position outlined in the memorandum, and had suggested that State, War and Navy representatives discuss the matter with him on April 19. I interpreted President Roosevelt’s memorandum as meaning that the trusteeship question should be discussed at San Francisco (as agreed to at Yalta), that preliminary conversations with other Powers should take place after the meeting on the nineteenth, and that there would be sufficient time to handle the problem adequately, even with this delay. That evening (April 10) I phoned Secretary Forrestal that the President would like to see us on the nineteenth regarding trusteeships, and suggested that Colonel Stimson, Forrestal and myself “have the first appointment with the President when he returns”. Forrestal remarked that Stimson would like the Chiefs of Staff to be there also, and I said I had no objection. On Thursday the twelfth I discussed trusteeships with Mr. Abraham Fortas, Under Secretary of the Interior, and told him that I was going to the President on this subject with the Secretaries of War and Navy before I left for San Francisco. Fortas explained about a memorandum he had sent to the President, with a copy going to me a day earlier.51 But I told him I had heard of the memorandum only from the President. Half an hour later I phoned Secretary Forrestal particularly to ask if he would explain to Colonel Stimson that I was disassociated from the State Department memorandum on Trusteeships, and Forrestal promised to pass on to the Colonel the information that I was out of town when our memorandum was prepared.

. . . . . . .

  1. Draft not printed; see telegram of April 9 to President Roosevelt, infra.↩
  2. Reference may have been to draft letter prepared by Secretary Stimson and discussed by the three Secretaries at the April 2 meeting, in the War Department (The Forrestal Diaries, p. 38).↩
  3. No record of letter found in Department files.↩
  4. See footnote 52, p. 211.↩
  5. See memorandum of April 5 by the Secretary of the Interior (Ickes) to the Secretary of State, p. 198.↩