Julija Šakytė, LRT.lt2020.07.23 11:53
On July 23, 1940, the United States issued a historic Welles declaration which condemned the Soviet occupation of the three Baltic States. As Lithuania marks the 80th anniversary of the historic document, a historian explains its lasting importance.
“The European principled position would have been hardly possible without the strong stance of Washington,” Algimantas Kasparavičius, a historian at the Lithuanian Institute of History, told LRT.lt.
The declaration on July 23, 1940, was issued by Benjamin Sumner Welles, who served as an interim secretary of state at the time. The document condemned the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which remained the official US position up until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“The declaration was proposed by the then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He had a strong position saying that the Baltic states could not be erased from the European political map. He ordered B. J. Welles [to draft the declaration],” explained Kasparavičius.
The final text of the document said that the US did not recognise an illegal and forced incorporation of countries by a “more powerful neighbour”.
“The Soviet Union was not mentioned directly but it was clear to everyone who the ‘more powerful neighbour’ was,” said the historian.
According to him, the declaration issued in the summer of 1940 was important to the Baltic states for many reasons.
After condemning the Soviet occupation, the US continued to secure Lithuania’s gold deposited in its Federal Reserve. The Lithuanian embassies in Washington, New York, and Chicago also remained operational during the entire occupation period.
In the words of Kasparavičius, this declaration also encouraged many other countries, such as France, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, to n
“Through the Welles declaration […] our fight for independence gained international importance,” he said.
The declaration anniversary is celebrated in Lithuania every year. On Thursday, a concert in commemoration of the document will take place next to the National Martynas Mažvydas Library in Vilnius.
“We’ll be forever grateful to the American allies for a principled stance, which gave us strength even during most critical times and laid the foundation for strategic partnership today,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius wrote on hisTwitter account.