Editorial Note
No official record of the conversation at this meeting has been found. Leahy, p. 214, writes:
“… President Roosevelt on December 4 gave a dinner in honor of the Turkish President. It was an interesting affair, all the conversation being in French, which the President spoke without hesitation.
“After the dinner, the Prime Minister joined the party and promptly laid siege to President Inonu to induce him to cast the fate of his country with the Allies. Churchill did most of the talking. Inonu just listened. Later, the President told his British colleague that if he, Roosevelt, were a Turk, he would require more assurance of aid than Britain had promised before abandoning neutrality and leading his nation into war.”
The list of those present is derived from the Log, ante, p. 657, which includes Churchill in the dinner list. The second Russian listed is presumably Sergey Sergeyevich Mikhailov, of the Soviet Embassy at Ankara.