740.0011 European War 1939/5589: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:42 p.m.]
155. 1. The Italian Military Attaché is intimating in Turkish military circles that the Russian maneuvers now taking place in the Caucasus are preliminary to a Soviet attack upon Turkey. In view of the season and the nature of the country this appears prima facie unlikely and the report seems to have made no particular impression here except in certain political circles.
2. The Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday assured me that this country has no reason for any concrete apprehensions with regard to the attitude of the Soviet Union, with which relations are in fact tending slowly towards improvement, a tendency likely to be furthered by the replacement of the Russian Ambassador by the Counselor of Embassy who is a personality more acceptable to the Turks.19
Repeated to Moscow.
- The appointment of Sergey Alexandrovich Vinogradov to replace Ambassador Terentyev in Turkey was announced on September 11.↩