Office of the Historian

861.24/819a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Second Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Thompson), at Moscow

Washington, February 9, 1942—11 p.m.

26. “Personal from the President to Stalin. Our shipments for January and February have included and will include 244 fighter planes, 24 B–25’s, 238 A–20’s, 408 medium tanks and 449 light tanks.

The reports here indicate you are getting on well in pushing the Nazis back.

While we are having our immediate troubles in the Far East, I believe we will have that area reinforced in the near future to such an extent that we can stop the Japs but we are prepared for some further setbacks.

I realize the importance of getting our supplies to you at the earliest possible date and every effort is being made to get shipments off. Roosevelt.”55

Hull
  1. The Chargé in the Soviet Union reported in his telegram No. 129, February 11, 1942, midnight, that he had that evening handed a note to Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky, Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, addressed to Molotov, containing a paraphrase of the President’s message to Stalin (861.24/825).↩