PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S LETTER ACCEPTING THE RESIGNATION OF EDWARD R. STETTINIUS, JR. AS SECRETARY OF STATE

June 27, 1945

United States Department of State Bulletin.

Independence, Missouri
June 27th, 1945

DEAR ED:

On the day after the death of President Roosevelt, you submitted to me your resignation as Secretary of State. I asked you to continue at your post and to carry out the vitally important assignment for which you were then completing the last preparations-to act as chairman of the United States delegation at the United Nations Conference.

You accepted that responsibility. It was a very grave responsibility. Upon the success of the San Francisco Conference depended, first of all, the hope that from this war the United Nations could build a lasting peace.

The San Francisco Conference has now fulfilled its purpose. The Charter of a permanent United Nations has been written. You have every reason to be proud of your part in this achievement from the beginning.

At the request of Mr. Hull after the Moscow Conference in 1943 you, as Under Secretary of State, organized and directed the preparation, for Dumbarton Oaks.

You were the representative of the United States and acted as the chairman of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, where the Proposals were written that became the basis of the Charter. You were at President Roosevelt's right hand at Yalta, where further decisions on the world organization were made and agreement to hold the United Nations Conference was reached.

All the preparations for the San Francisco Conference were under your direction. During its deliberations you served not only as chairman of the United States delegation but as President of the Conference, charged with the conduct of its business. The task of guiding the work of this Conference of fifty different nations toward unanimous agreement upon the Charter was a difficult one. You accomplished it with skill, unfaltering courage, and success.

But the task of fulfilling the promise of the San Francisco Conference has only just begun. The Charter must be ratified and the United Nations organization brought into being and put to work. It is necessary to the future of America and the world that the words of this Charter be built into the solid structure of peace for which the world is waiting and praying.

I can think of no better way to express the confidence of the United States in the future of The United Nations than to choose as the American representative in that task a man who has held with distinction the highest appointive office in the Government and has been more closely associated with the creation of the Charter than any other.

I have asked you if you would accept nomination as The Representative of the United States to The United Nations, when the organization is established. As such you would be the United States member of the Security Council and chairman of the United States delegation in the General Assembly. You have told me that you would accept this great responsibility.

I therefore now accept your resignation as Secretary of State.

I intend to submit the United Nations Charter to the Senate on Monday and to ask for its prompt ratification. You have told me that you feel it is of the utmost importance for you, as Chairman of the United States delegation, to be immediately available to the Senate for whatever assistance and information it needs in connection with its consideration of the Charter.

I wanted you to come with me to the meeting with Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill which will take place next month. But, since I shall be away during the Congressional hearings, I have reluctantly agreed to your suggestion that you remain in Washington while I am away. In that capacity you will represent me before the Senate in all matters relating to the Charter.

I also ask you to supervise, as the personal representative of the President, the work of the United States members of the Preparatory Commission pending ratification of the Charter and your nomination as The Representative of the United States to the United Nations.

I am confident that you will continue to fulfill with honor to yourself and with benefit to America and the cause of peace the high trust which your country reposes in you.

Very sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRUMAN


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