Harry S. Truman of Missouri for the Vice Presidency, adopted in its platform of July 29, a pledge レ

"To join with the other United Nations in the establishment of an international organization based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving States, open to membership by all such States, large and small, for the prevention of aggression and the maintenance of international peace and security;

"To make all necessary and effective agreements and arrangements through which the nations would maintain adequate forces to meet the needs of preventing war and of making impossible the preparation for war and which would have such forces available for joint action when necessary."

Several weeks later, Governor Dewey issued a statement which strongly endorsed participation in an international security organization. The statement, dated August 16, 1944, referred, however, to recent reports concerning the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and said: "These indicate that it is planned to subject the nations of the world, great and small, permanently to the coercive power of the four nations holding this conference."

Governor Dewey's statement then set forth a number of "fundamentals of future peace." These can only be indicated here, in summary, as follows: The view was expressed that the defeat of the principal enemy states "will be achieved primarily by the united power of Britain, Russia, China and the United States" and that to "insure that Germany and Japan shall never again be able to disrupt the peace of the world, these four Allies must maintain their present unity." The "responsibility to keep Germany and Japan disarmed should be shared with liberated peoples," it was stated, "but it cannot immediately be delegated to a world-wide organization while such organization is yet new and untried." Regarding the organizing of "permanent peace among the rest of the world, a very different attitude must be taken." In this respect, is was considered that peace was "a task of cooperation among equal and sovereign nations" and that it should be based on "freedom, equality and justice." Following further views on the work with which the world organization should be concerned and the bases on which peace should be founded, the statement concluded with objection to "proposals which amount merely to a permanent Four Power alliance to control the world."

The Secretary stated to the press on August 17 that the fears expressed were "utterly and completely unfounded." No "military alliance of the four major nations permanently to coerce the rest of the world," he said, "is contemplated or has ever been contemplated by this Government or, as far as we know, by any of the other governments." He explained that the purpose of the meeting at Dumbarton Oaks was to have "a discussion among the signatories of the Moscow Declaration" on establishing the kind of organization for peace and

security envisaged therein, as "preliminary to similar discussions and early conference among all the United Nations and other peace-loving countries, large and small." The Secretary replied to press inquiry that he wished to keep international security organization out of Party politics and would "welcome conferences with others who come solely in a non-partisan spirit. " He said he "would welcome

such a conference with Governor Dewey."

The proposed conference was the subject of a telegram from Governor Dewey to the Secretary on the following day, stating "I am happy to accept your proposal . . . and to designate Mr. John Foster Dulles as my representative". Also, the belief was indicated in this telegram that in view of the progress of the war, effort to organize both temporarily and permanently for the establishment of lasting peace should be accelerated. To render the result "wholly bipartisan” and unitedly supported by the American people, Governor Dewey extended his fullest cooperation.

Three daily conferences in the Department between the Secretary and Mr. Dulles followed, beginning August 23 and ending August 25. The current draft of the Tentative Proposals was given to Mr. Dulles at the first conference. The Secretary also gave him a summary of their provisions dealing with subjects of special interest in the light of Governor Dewey's statement: position of small countries, pacific settlement and peaceful change, agreements for provision of armed forces and regulation of armaments, and control of Axis countries.

Much attention in these conferences was devoted to keeping the problem of the establishment of an international peace and security organization out of politics. The question of the distinction between "nonpartisan" and bipartisan arose in this connection. The Secretary believed that under our constitutional structure the party in power could alone have responsibility for execution of foreign policy, and that "bipartisan" was also inappropriate as limited to only two parties. Since the Tentative Proposals were regarded favorably by Mr. Dulles, a draft joint statement to be issued to the press was discussed, together with the Proposals, on August 24 and again on the 25th. Following Governor Dewey's amendment by telephone to insert "full” in the sentence stating that "full public nonpartisan discussion of the means of attaining a lasting peace" was not precluded by the view that future peace should be kept "entirely out of politics," the statement was issued on August 25. This statement announced that there was "agreement of views on numerous aspects" of the subject, that the Secretary and Mr. Dulles expected "to continue to confer about developments" as they arose, and that whether there would be complete agreement of views would "depend on future developments."

The substantive aspects of these discussions clarified need of having an explicit stipulation inserted in the Tentative Proposals providing

for "ratification by each country in accordance with its constitutional procedures" of the contemplated agreement under which armed forces would be placed at the disposal of the organization for enforcement of peace and security. A sentence to this effect was immediately written into the Tentative Proposals at the Secretary's direction.

Governor Dewey stated in a letter to the Secretary August 25 that he was "deeply gratified at the result of the discussions" and commented: "They constitute a new attitude toward the problem of peace." He then stated that he felt that war had been the only matter "above partisanship during a presidential campaign" heretofore, but that “if we are to have lasting peace, we must wage peace as we wage war. I feel that we are now making a beginning toward doing that and it is my hope that we shall have great success to that end." The Secretary considered the Governor's letter and the preceding conversations especially encouraging in their "heartening manifestation of national unity" on the foreign policy involved, as he wrote in reply to Governor Dewey on September 4, 1944. The Secretary's letter, as approved by the President, concluded with the suggestion that this correspondence be made public so that there might "be fuller public understanding of our common ground on this important subject," and this was done on September 6.11

The arrangements with Governor Dewey made in mid-August 1944 brought the political consultations on general international organization for peace and security to full circle. Continuation of congressional consultation, with the same groups of Senators and Representatives who were concerned in the discussions held in April, May, and June 1944, had been arranged just prior to the extension of consultations to include those of a primarily party character just described. On August 15, the Secretary had informed the senatorial group and the group of House leaders that the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations were to be on a technical or expert level, that the British in general favored the same principles embodied in the American document, and that he would inform them of any new fundamental principles that might be developed during the Conversations.

Accordingly, both congressional and party consultations-"nonpartisan" from the Department's standpoint, but increasingly called "bipartisan"-actively continued during the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations. The development of the nonpartisan policy as a whole since its institution by Secretary Hull in the spring of 1942 in connection with the preparation of our postwar foreign policy has been observed in earlier pages. It ultimately led to representation of both major Parties in the American negotiations on postwar problems. The first explicit step toward such representation in negotiating agree"Department of State Bulletin, XI, 255.

ment for the general international organization was taken shortly before the developments described immediately above. Participation by Henry P. Fletcher, general counsel of the Republican National Committee and diplomat of wide experience, as a member of the American Group to conduct the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations had been invited by Secretary Hull, July 1, and had been arranged by July 27, 1944. The latter was the effective date of his appointment as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for postwar problems and plans, an unusual position which was created for Mr. Fletcher and which he occupied through the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and until his resignation in December 1944. His membership on the American Group to conduct the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations was announced through the list released to the press on August 1, 1944.

While these international and domestic arrangements were being made for the "informal conference" to be convened at Dumbarton Oaks, the Tentative Proposals to be advanced there were being reviewed and final decisions on them made.

CHAPTER XIV

The American Group for Major Power Conversations

TH

HE STUDY given the Tentative Proposals in the five weeks between their completion and the opening of the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations was intended to provide final briefing of the American negotiators for their conduct of the coming Conversations. It also provided a thorough review and some reconsideration of the Proposals. The arrangements for this study were purposely constructed to dovetail with the projected organization of the American Group for the Conversations and with that of the Conversations as a whole. Because of the flexibility that had distinguished the processes by which the Tentative Proposals had been prepared in the Informal Political Agenda Group, and that was contemplated for the majorpower negotiations toward a common understanding on the problems involved in establishing a general international organization, the concept of "groups" was followed in all these arrangements. In keeping with this concept, the formal term "Delegation" was avoided by the Department.

Plans for this last readying stage prior to the start of substantive negotiations with the other major powers began to be considered in draft over-all memoranda as early as May 22, 1944. Definite arrangements developed first in connection with the staff. A meeting was held by Mr. Pasvolsky on May 29, attended by Messrs. Sandifer and Gerig of the Division of International Security and Organization and Alger Hiss, Special Assistant to Ambassador Wilson, Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs who was temporarily absent, to arrange the allocation of technical officers to work on what was then called the "Basic Instrument of the General International Organization." This Division and Office, as the staff responsible at a working level in this field, began at once to arrange the documentary materials required.

The necessary broader arrangements consumed much more time, since they involved plans for the American Group to conduct negotiations and also for the "informal conference," responsibility for which