740.0011 Moscow/96: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received October 31—10:50 p.m.]
1797. For the President and Acting Secretary. Last night (Saturday) Stalin invited us to dinner at the Kremlin. It was smaller and more select than the previous two I have attended. There were 12 of us Americans including the 4 members of the military mission, a similar number from the British, in all a total of about 60 including from the Soviet side all the commissar members of the defense committee and ranking officers from the three services.
This dinner was also more genuine, genial and intimate. The conversation during and after dinner was free and uninhibited with plenty of humor about past misunderstandings. Stalin appeared to enjoy himself as much as anyone else. During the toasts General Deane stole the show in responding to Stalin’s toast “to the American forces” by offering one to the day when advance detachments of American and British troops would meet similar Soviet forces in the streets of Berlin. Marshal Stalin paid him alone the high honor of walking around the table to his seat to click his glass and drink the toast with him personally.
After dinner a film was shown depicting the bitter fight of the Red partisans against the treacherous Japs in Siberia during the revolutionary period of 1918. This film was produced in 1938 and when shown publicly in Moscow evoked a strong protest from the Japanese Ambassador. There was no attempt to obscure the purpose behind the selection of this film.
Stalin seemed genuinely pleased that the Secretary remained to the end for a concert by leading Moscow opera stars. All of the Russians went out of their way to show their hospitality to our party, their appreciation of the Secretary’s presence, and their solid satisfaction with the results of the Conference.