740.0011 European War 1939/24706: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Dickerson) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 7—11:05 a.m.]
858. Pravda of October 5 publishes prominently on its front page a letter dated October 3 written by Stalin to Henry Cassidy, correspondent in Moscow of the Associated Press, in reply to a letter which Cassidy had addressed to Stalin requesting an answer either orally or in written form to three questions “of interest to American public opinion”. Stalin’s letter to Cassidy as published by Pravda reads as follows:
[“]Mr. Cassidy:
In view of the fact that I am busy and cannot therefore grant you an interview I am confined to giving you a brief written reply to your questions.
1. ‘What place does the possibility of a second front occupy in the Soviet evaluation of the current situation’.
Reply. A very important—it is possible to say—a primary place.
2. ‘How effective is the assistance from the Allies to the Soviet Union and what would it be possible to do in order to expand and improve this assistance ?’
Reply. In comparison with the assistance which the Soviet Union, drawing off the main forces of the German Fascist troops is rendering to its allies, the assistance from the Allies to the Soviet Union is meanwhile of little effect. To expand and improve this assistance only one thing is required: complete and timely fulfillment by Allies of their obligations.
3. ‘What is still the Soviet capacity for resistance?’
Reply. I think that the Soviet capacity for resistance to the, German bandits is in its strength not a whit lower—if not higher—than the capacity of Fascist Germany or of any other aggressive power to secure for itself world hegemony.
With respects. I. Stalin.”