Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, Europe, Volume III

740.0011 European War 1939/23386: Telegram

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

Moscow, August 7, 1942—8 p.m.
[Received August 7—5:23 p.m.]

279. Pravda andIzvestiya today publish Tass¹² despatches from London and New York, the first describing mass meetings in England demanding the immediate opening of a second front in Europe, and the second reporting how a number of American trade union groups were making the same demand.

This is the fifth consecutive day on which such second front items have been prominently published.¹³

Standley

12. Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, an official communication agency of the Soviet Government.
13. In telegram No. 289, August 10, 1942, from Moscow, the Ambassador stated that American newspaper correspondents told him that “they are being encouraged by the Soviet press authorities to write articles on the urgency for a second front.” (740.0011 European War 1939/23456) He had already reported from Kuibyshev in telegram No. 672 of August 3 on “the gravity of the military situation in south Russia” and that “for the first time the theme is appearing that despite Russia’s size the Red Army cannot retreat indefinitely.” (740.0011 European War 1939/23298)