Radius, Walter A. Papers

Dates: 1948

Vice Chairman, U.S. Delegation, International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube, 1948

The papers of Walter A. Radius consist of documents relating to the International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1948. They include U.S. State Department reports, minutes of general committee and plenary sessions, newspaper clippings, and press releases from the U.S. delegation to the Conference.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 2.5 linear inches (about 400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave his copyright in writings in this collection, and in any other collection in the custody of the Harry S. Truman Library, to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Erwin J. Mueller (1973).
Updated by: Shane Ewing (2016) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.


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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1910 (April 25)

 

Born Walter A. Radius, San Francisco, California

1942

 

Ph.D., Stanford University

1942

 

Began career in U.S. Department of State

1946

 

Economic Adviser, U.S. Delegation, Council of Foreign Ministers, Paris

1947-1952

 

Director, Office of Transport and Communications, Department of State

1948

 

Vice Chairman, U.S. Delegation, International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

1954-1956

 

Special Assistant, Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs

1956-1960

 

Civil Air Attache, U.S. Embassy, Bonn. Germany

1960-1963

 

Deputy to Minister of Economic Affairs, U.S. Embassy, London

1970

 

Retired from the Foreign Service

2006 (September 24

 

Died, Stanford, California

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of Walter A. Radius consist of documents relating to the International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1948. They include U.S. State Department reports, minutes of general committee and plenary sessions, press releases, newspaper clippings, and news releases from the U.S. delegation to the Conference. The collection is arranged in a single series, the Subject File.

The Subject File contains U.S. State Department reports and drafts, including summaries of the minutes of each day's general committee meeting; defenses of the articles proposed by the U.S. to the Provisions of the Danube River Convention; arguments prepared for why English should be an official language at the Conference (which it was not), and why Austria should not be excluded from privileges accepted by the Conference; a list of secretariat documents prepared by the U.S. delegation; and general committee and plenary session minutes which describe the articles and amendments to the Convention's provisions, and how the representatives from each of the ten countries voted on them. Also included is a report of the credentials committee at the Conference; a copy of Yugoslavia's draft of provisions; a comparison of the U.S. and Soviet drafts of provisions; a copy of the August 17 draft prepared by the Conference; copies of the final statements to the Conference by Western Ambassadors and Representatives; and an unofficial report of the signing of the Danube Convention without the participation of the United Kingdom, France, and the U.S.

The Subject File also contains press releases and newspaper clippings pertaining to the Conference. The minutes prepared by the U.S. delegation were released to the press, and Radius wrote press releases on English being excluded as an official language, and on the result of the Conference, reporting the reasons why the U.K., France, and the U.S. refused to sign the Danube Convention. The series contains press clippings reacting to the result of the Conference, and a Russian newspaper reporting on the Conference as it began.

Other items in the Subject File include Radius's pass to the Conference, dinner invitations, a travel itinerary for the U.S. delegation, a guide in Russian and French (with a translation of it prepared by the U.S. delegation), and a ballet playbill.

More information on postwar conferences between the World War II Allies can be found at the Truman Library in the Harry S. Truman Papers (President's Secretary's Files: Subject File-Conferences).

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SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Container Nos.

 

Series

1

  SUBJECT FILE, 1948
U.S. State Department reports, minutes of general committee and plenary sessions, newspaper clippings, press releases, and other items relating to the International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube. Arranged alphabetically by folder title
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FOLDER TITLE LIST

SUBJECT FILE, 1948

Box 1

  • International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube [1 of 2]
  • International Conference to Consider Free Navigation of the Danube [2 of 2]
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