Document: Harry S Truman to Secretary of States James Byrnes, 5 January 1946
Source [link within this page]:
Letter
Available online at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum and Library
Comments:
The growing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union can be seen in this letter from the President to his Secretary of State. In this case it was over the Russian refusal to leave northern Iran. The whole country had been “occupied” by the Allies during the war. Eventually the Russians, under American pressure, finally left Iran later that year.
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Iran was our ally in the war, Iran was Russia's ally in the war….
Yet now Russia… keeps troops on the soil of her friend and ally
– Iran. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Russia intends
an invasion of Turkey and the Black Sea Straits to the Mediterranean.
Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language war is
in the making. We should let our position on Iran be known in uncertain
terms…. I’'m tired of babying the Soviets.