701.6111/1202: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:10 p.m.]
1098. For the President and the Secretary. Molotov requested me to call this evening. He stated that the Soviet Government had decided to retain Litvinov in Moscow where his services were urgently needed as Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs.63 I stated that Litvinov would be missed in Washington, that I felt sure my Government would regret his recall but that I fully realized the need for his services here.
Molotov then stated that the Soviet Government desired to appoint Andrei Gromyko the present Soviet Chargé d’Affaires as Ambassador and requested me to obtain the agreement of my Government. He said that Gromyko had been twice in charge of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, that he had ably fulfilled his duties and that the Soviet Government felt sure that he would fulfill his functions as Ambassador satisfactorily.64 Molotov promised to furnish me with [Page 565] a biography of Gromyko which I shall transmit as soon as it is received.65
- Likewise the Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom (Maisky) was to be retained in Moscow, and his appointment as an Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs had been announced in the Soviet press on July 28. He was to be replaced as Ambassador by the young and inexperienced Fedor Tarasovich Gousev, but Molotov had explained to the British that, because of a shortage of senior officials, “they would have to nominate as Ambassador the best of the junior material that was coming along in the Soviet Foreign Office, and from that angle had selected Mr. Gousev.” (701.6141/45)↩
- In telegram No. 721, August 20, 1 p.m., Ambassador Standley was instructed to inform Molotov that the appointment of Gromyko as Soviet Ambassador to the United States would be “entirely acceptable to this Government.” (701.6111/1205)↩
- This information was transmitted in telegram No. 1104, August 17, 4 p.m., from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, not printed.↩