Memorandum of Conversation
 
 
 
DATE: August 21, 1943
 
 
 
SUBJECT: Attitude of Italian Government toward continuation of war.
 
 
 
PARTICIPANTS: The Most Reverend Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, Apostolic Delegate;   
Mr. Welles, Acting Secretary.
 
 
COPIES TO: The President, S, PA/D, Eu, A-B
 
     
 
 
The Apostolic Delegate called to see me this evening for the second time today. The   
Archbishop brought with him a copy of a telegram which he had sent to the Cardinal Secoretary   
of State on August 19 and which he read to me. In this telegram the Delegate had informed the   
Holy See that in his Judgment public opinion in the United States was exceedingly uncertain as   
to whether the policy of the present Italian Government of apparently continuing the war on   
the side of Germany was a spontaneous decision on the part of the Italian Government or whether   
it was a decision which was forced upon it by German power. He also said that American public   
opinion was equally uncertain as to whether the Italian Government sincerely desired to find   
the ways and means of bringing to an end Italian participation in the war against the United   
Nations.
 
     
 
 
The Archbishop then read to me the reply which he had Just received from Cardinal Maglione.   
In this message the Cardinal Secretary of State stated that the Italian Government desired to   
find as promptly as possible the means of ending its war against the United Nations, and second,   
that its continued collaboration with Germany was not spontaneous but was forced upon it by the   
German Government.
 
     
 
 
I thanked the Delegate for bringing this information so promptly to my attention and I said   
I would of course immediately refer the message he had given me to the President for his   
knowledge.