861.20211/137a
The Assistant Secretary of State (Berle) to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Hoover)
My Dear Mr. Hoover: I think it useful at this point to crystallize the attitude of the Department with regard to the activities which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been carrying on with respect to Russian agents with which may also be included the Communist agencies in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere.
Until the invasion of Russia by Germany on June 21 [22] the Department had reason to believe that so far as activities in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere were concerned, the activities of Russian and Communist agents and agencies, and of the Comintern, were in substance auxiliary to German operations here and abroad. The results of their espionage were probably made available to the German Government; their propaganda and sabotage activities undoubtedly followed the German policies. This orientation only changed at the time of the invasion of Russia by Germany on June 21 [22].
Since that time these activities, both espionage and propaganda, have completely changed direction. They will, therefore, presumably cooperate in considerable degree with British and United States objectives. It is likewise to be anticipated that the Russian agencies [Page 790] will attempt to take advantage of this situation to establish their agents and agencies in advantageous positions wherever possible. So long as the Russian objectives are made the same as our own no apparent danger will arise from this policy.
But the Department cannot ignore certain cardinal facts in the situation.
Considerations of expediency have led the Russian policy from one of hostility to the United States to one of friendship. Like considerations may change the policy back again to one of hostility at any moment, and perhaps without previous warning. Though not likely, it must be kept in mind that the Stalin34 Government might again come to an agreement with Germany; or that the Russian Government itself might pass into the hands of other elements in Russia; or that through conquest a German puppet Government might establish control over the Comintern35 and espionage machinery. In any of these cases the same mechanisms may suddenly be dominated once more by a Government hostile to the United States.
For this reason the Department feels that it would be unwise to abandon surveillance over the activities of the Russian and Communist agencies in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere; and that it would be unwise to permit agents of these groups to establish themselves in strategic or influential positions.
Furthermore, freedom of this country from subversive activities of these units should rest, not on the attitude of the Russian Government, but on the ability of the United States to protect itself against such activities whenever necessary.
Sincerely yours,
- Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks); member of the Politburo and Orgburo of the party; and, since May 6, 1941, President of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Prime Minister).↩
- The Third, or Communist International founded by the Bolsheviks in Moscow in March 1919.↩