US participation in the activities of the IGCR during the presidency of Harry Truman (1945-1947)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21847/1728-9343.2018.6(158).155049Keywords:
Harry Truman, Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, United States, Directorate, London, State Department, Refugees, displaced person, Earl Harrison, George WarrenAbstract
The article analyzes the activities of US representatives in the IGCR during the last years of the organization's existence. It is researched that with the end of the WWII the committee, initiated and founded by F. Roosevelt in 1938, faced new challenges. The history of the post-war period of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees deals with the participation in overcoming the demographic crisis inEurope. At the same time, it was vitally important for the intergovernmental organization to be involved in the process of forming an international system with the mandate on refugees.
The actuality of the researched work is due to the lack of a special study for today and the schematic coverage of the topic in the works of predecessors. According to the results of the study, based on the use of the materials of the National Archives of theUnited Statesand the documents of the US Department of State, the main programs of the IGCR have been identified and the role of financial and diplomatic support by theUnited Statesof the Intergovernmental Committee has been followed.
It was researched that unlike the prewar period, American diplomatic representation in London, led by ex-director of the International Labor Organization John Vinant, played a prominent role in shaping US relations with the IGCR. It was found that the United States remained as a major donor, paying regularly at least 40% of the estimate and requiring a payment of proportionally lesser contributions from other member Governments in the IGCR. It was revealed that the institutional weakening of the IGCR did not occur when USSR and some other countries left the organization. Respectively represented in the IGCR remained the countries of South America. Through US mediation, the committee managed to conclude special agreements with a number of Latin American states regarding the conditions of acceptance of refugees from Europe. After the war, the IGCR failed to remain as the main factor and instrument for the international community to support forced migrants but it became the base unit for the creation of a new structure under the auspices of the United Nations - the International Refugee Organization.References
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National Archive of the United States, Record Group 59, Microcopy 1284, Roll 58, Telegram sent from US Department of State to E. G. Harrison, July 2, 1945, image 65.
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