740.0011 European War 1939/25264
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me this afternoon at my request.
I told the Ambassador that I had talked to Ambassador, Standley45 and had been very glad to obtain such a satisfactory impression from Admiral Standley of the Way in which things were moving in the Soviet Union. Mr. Litvinov replied that Admiral Standley saw things through rose-colored spectacles. I said that if that was the case, if I felt at any time that I was getting an over-optimistic viewpoint from Admiral Standley, I would immediately ask Mr. Litvinov to come to see me since I was sure that in that way I would get a balanced impression in view of Mr. Litvinov’s tendency to view things through black spectacles.
- Ambassador Standley had returned to Washington for consultation a few days previously.↩