#3-498
Memorandum for General Handy
February 4, 1943 [Washington, D.C.]
Secret
Subject: Reorganization of our interests in Iraq, Iran and Teheran reference General Hurley.1
General Hurley saw me today and retailed a discussion with the President in which, General Hurley informed me, the President made these statements:
That he would talk to me shortly regarding the possible assignment of General Hurley to what would amount to a military diplomatic post in the region facing the Russian frontier in the Middle East.
That General Hurley had suggested to the President the necessity of having someone there with an over-all responsibility, not circumscribed by a post at a single one of the two or three legations or embassies involved.
That it was necessary that there be an immediate coordination of the U.S. front in that region as the British and the Russians were at loggerheads, the latter highly suspicious of the British and the British involved in a definite purpose towards certain control.
Also that our interests were ineffectively secured because of the number of separate diplomatic officials involved, and that the major factor of the problem would be military.
General Hurley further stated that no Ambassador in Moscow could accomplish anything with Mr. Stalin as the Russian Foreign Office and the general bureaucracies prevent such contacts; therefore the only hope was to have some military individual—like himself—on a sufficiently informal basis to permit him to make visits to Moscow and communicate directly with Stalin. He, Hurley, thought that from the position I have outlined above in Iran and Iraq, such contacts might well be made.
The foregoing presents a most abnormal arrangement; however, there is something to it in my opinion and I should like the proposition carefully considered and discussed with me so that I can talk it over with the Secretary of War, and at least be ready to discuss the matter with the President should he send for me.2
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed memorandum.
1. Patrick J. Hurley, a former secretary of war (1929–33) and a Reserve officer, had been promoted to brigadier general in late 1941 and designated United States minister to New Zealand. He was in that country between April and August 1942 and was still ostensibly the minister, but between October 1942 and January 1943 he had been in the Middle East and the Soviet Union as President Roosevelt's personal representative.
2. In March 1943 President Roosevelt asked Hurley to undertake a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, but he was not given diplomatic status vis-à-vis the Soviet Union.
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 531–532.