311.6121 Gorin, M. N./42¾
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me this morning at his request. The Ambassador took up the case of Mr. Gorin, the Russian agent who had been convicted of espionage activities and who had been recently sentenced by the courts in Los Angeles. The Ambassador again asked in the most urgent manner what word I might have had from the Attorney General with regard to the Ambassador’s request that Gorin be placed on probation by the court upon the understanding that he would be immediately deported from the United States.
I told the Ambassador that I would express to the Attorney General the view of the Department of State which was that in as much as the man had already served two years in jail, and because of certain confidential reasons which I had explained to the Attorney General, the Department of State believed that in the interest of our international relations the procedure requested by the Soviet Ambassador would be justified. I told the Ambassador that the Attorney General had taken under consideration the message I had communicated to him and I reiterated to the Ambassador that the Department could not appropriately undertake the responsibility for a decision of this character which must necessarily rest with the law enforcement agents of the government, namely, the Department of Justice.
The Ambassador reminded me that there were only three days remaining before a decision would have to be reached. The Ambassador said that his Government attributed the greatest importance to this and said that while he remembered that I had expressed the opinion that this Government could not make any bargain with a foreign government with regard to the determination of questions of this character arising within its own jurisdiction, nevertheless, he could give me positive assurance that should leniency of the kind requested be shown in the case of Gorin, Mrs. [Miss] Pyk and two [Page 939] other American nationals now in jail in the Soviet Union would be released and deported from Soviet territory.
I told the Ambassador that I had taken careful note of what he had said in this regard. I further said that I would again speak with the Attorney General and advise the Ambassador of the decision which the Attorney General might make.
(Subsequently, after a further conversation with the Attorney General who informed me that the Department of Justice was not willing to take the steps suggested except upon the formal recommendation of the Department of State because of the belief of the Department of Justice that the Attorney General would be subject to attack from the Dies Committee31 unless some justification of the character indicated could be shown for the leniency requested in the case of Gorin, I took the matter up personally with the President. The President authorized me to say to the Attorney General that the President believed Gorin should be deported immediately from the United States rather than imprisoned for a further period in this country, and that should any public announcement on the part of the Attorney General be required, the announcement should state that the action recommended by the Attorney General was based upon representations made to the Department of Justice by the authorities of the Government charged with the conduct of our foreign relations. I communicated this message subsequently to the Attorney General who told me that he would take action accordingly. At my further request, Assistant Secretary Long had an interview with Congressman Dies who stated to Mr. Long that he favored the action proposed because of the bearing it would have upon American nationals in the Soviet Union, and that he would be prepared to defend the action taken.)
- Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities, of the House of Representatives, of which Martin Dies, Representative from Texas, was Chairman.↩