Office of the Historian

894.00/607: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, March 8, 1936—1 a.m.
[Received March 9—7:11 a.m.]

80. Litvinov expressed the opinion to me this evening that the elements in Japan opposed to war were definitely in control of the situation and that the Soviet Union would have nothing to fear from Japan in the immediate future.

Marshal Tukhachevsky42 who is equally well informed and somewhat more frank on the other hand stated that he believed the army officers of the Araki, Masaki, Hayashi school would prove to be more dangerous out of command than in command and that he thought peace in the Far East would continue to be at the mercy of an incident.

Bullitt
  1. Soviet Vice Commissar for Defense.↩