Office of the Historian

700.00116 M.E./280b

The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the Ambassador of the Soviet Union (Umansky)86

Washington, January 21, 1941.

My Dear Mr. Ambassador: Following our recent conversations, I am happy to inform you that the Government of the United States of America has decided that the policies set forth in the statement issued to the press by the President on December 2, 1939,87 and generally referred to as the “moral embargo”, are no longer applicable to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

This decision is being communicated to interested American manufacturers and exporters.

I am [etc.]

Sumner Welles
  1. Approved by the Secretary of State on January 17, 1941; handed to the Ambassador on January 21, 1941, by Mr. Welles.↩
  2. Text of statement is quoted in telegram No. 265, December 4, 1939, to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 801.↩