Prezidento Antano Smetonos pirmieji mėnesiai JAV 1941 metais: iš Niujorko per Vašingtoną į Čikagą

Abstract

The Lithuanian emigrants, especially nationalists, were trying to help him - they rented him hotel rooms, invited him to stay at their homes, invited him to lunch or dinner, helped him with transport. Representative P. Žadeikis managed to provide A. Smetona with a monthly allowance of 800 dollars, which guaranteed a more stable life both to him and his family. USA wished to preserve the cooperation among different groups of emigrants in the Council aiming to free Lithuania (later - the Lithuanian American Council) and allowed the members of the Catholic group personally, but not on behalf of their organization, to participate in the meetings and banquets with A. Smetona. However, this did not preserve the unity among the emigrants - the nationalists withdrew from the above mentioned organization and created their own movement. A. Smetona's unofficial meetings with the US State Secretary and President Franldin D. Roosevelt on April 1 and 18,1941 increased A. Smetona's prestige among Lithuanian emigrants; these events were widely described in the American press. The US authorities claimed that the Lithuanian President arrived in the USA unofficially, as a guest, without any right to participate in the cross-border politics. Smetona's actions were defined as propaganda with the aim of spreading the information to the Lithuanian emigrants and the American society about the dramatic consequences of the war to small European nations. The Lithuanian diplomatic service in the USA, especially Representative P. Žadeikis. were trying to use A. Smetona for propagandist purposes - to show the consequences for Lithuania, on account of its lost statehood and the country's attempts to restore independence. The service made sure that President would not get involved in the complicated relations of different political groups of American Lithuanians. A. Smetona himself also promised not to take part in internal issues of the Lithuanian emigrants. He was grandly welcomed in Chicago on May 2-4, where he visited the representatives of the USA Government and Church, and met with his countrymen. A. Smetona and his family arrived in the USA having limited resources.