740.00119 European War 1939/1274: Telegram
The Chargé in Finland (McClintock) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:39 p.m.]
221. French Military Attaché80 last night told me that he had learned from number of sources that Ribbentrop81 is cherishing hope of a separate compromise peace between Germany and Russia on [Page 623] terms of restoring to Russia frontiers it had when Hitler attacked in June 1941. Basis for his hope was said to be that protagonists of 1939 Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact82 were still in power in both countries and thus might return to their former association. When I remarked that this reasoning seemed to leave out the consideration that in meantime an immense war had intervened, my informant said that this was true but one could never tell what Russians thought.
- Lt. Col. P.Ollivier.↩
- Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Signed at Moscow on August 23, 1939; for text, see Department of State, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941, pp. 76–78, or Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, series D, vol. vii (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1956), pp. 245–247.↩