From the archives: Control unit for defeated Germany

By International News ServiceMay 11, 1970

This story originally appeared in Newsday on May 11, 1945

Secretary of War Henry I. Stimson today set up the machinery with which the United States will help control defeated Germany and make her citizens realize that they have lost the war they started.

Under the provisions of the Yalta “Big Three” conference, Stimson announced the organization which will handle the defeated enemy’s territory until a democratic government can be established.

While proclaiming it to be a part of the machinery established at Yalta, Stimson’s outline did not reveal whether the Allied Control Commission would have its headquarters in Russian-occupied Berlin, as the Yalta Declaration provided. Nor did it set forth the geographical limits of the United States zone of occupations.

The statement said that for many months the governments of the United States, Britain, Russia and France had been working on plans for the occupation of Germany. Their purpose, it was said, was to impose a “stern” military government on Germany. It said: “As was announced in the Yalta Declaration, Germany will be governed through a control council in which each of the four powers (the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union) will be represented.

“General (Dwight D.) Eisenhower will be the representative of the United States on the Control Council of Germany. Each power will administer a zone of Germany under the control of a military commander. The United States zone will be controlled by General Eisenhower as the commander-in-chief of the United States forces in Germany.”

Lt. Gen. Lucius Clay, the Army West Pointer who previously was deputy direction of war mobilization and reconversion, will serve as Eisenhower’s deputy on the council.

The Stimson plan provides for the establishment of a group control council, divided into 12 divisions paralleling the 12 divisions of the German Central Government. They will control the American occupations zone and will represent the American interest in the control council for Germans.