"Restatement of Policy on Germany" is a famous speech by James F. Byrnes, then United States Secretary of State, held in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946. Portrait of U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes James Francis Byrnes (May 2, 1879 – April 9, 1972) was a confidant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and one of the most powerful men in American domestic and foreign policy in the mid-2006s. ... Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ... Stuttgart [], a city located in southern Germany, is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of approximately 590,000 (as of September 2005) in the city and around 3 million in the metropolitan area. ...

Also known as the "Speech of hope" it set the tone of future U.S. policy as it repudiated the Morgenthau Plan economic policies and with its message of a change to a policy of economic reconstruction gave the Germans hope for the future. The Morgenthau Plan showing the planned partitioning of Germany into a North State, a South State, and an International zone. ...

The Western powers worst fear by now was that the poverty and hunger would drive the Germans to Communism. General Lucius Clay stated "There is no choice between being a communist on 1,500 calories a day and a believer in democracy on a thousand". This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... General Lucius D. Clay (April 23, 1897 - April 16, 1978) was an American general. ...

The speech was also seen as a first firm stand against the Soviet Union as it stated the intention of the United States to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely. But the heart of the message was as Byrnes stated a month later "The nub of our program was to win the German people . . . it was a battle between us and Russia over minds. . . ." World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ...

External links

• Text of the "Stuttgart speech", September 6, 1946
• James Francis Byrnes and U.S. Policy towards Germany 1945-1947 Deutsch-Amerikanische Zentrum / James-F.-Byrnes-Institut e.V
• James W. Riddleberger (Part 3), (Part 1) Chief, Division of Central European Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State, 1944-47
• General Lucius D. Clay Commander in chief, U.S. Forces in Europe and military governor, U.S. Zone, Germany, 1947-49
• U.K. Policy towards Germany National Archives excerpts of Cabinet meetings, part of which discuss the speech.
• Time Magazine, Sep. 16, 1946. "Journey to Stuttgart"
• CNN Iron Curtain.