861.9111 RR/7–1144: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 11—11:52 a.m.]
2506. Izvestiya for July 9 published a letter from Eric Johnston to Stalin dated Tashkent July 7 and reading in translation as follows:
“I am returning to America with deep respect for the growing industrial might of Russia. The industrial progress of your country made a great impression on me everywhere I traveled especially in the young and flourishing cities of the Urals. This development constitutes a tribute to your farsighted leadership. The production of your industrial machine has to a considerable degree helped to save the world from Nazi enslavement. I also carry away with me many pleasant memories of my experience in Russia of which the greatest was the inspiring meeting with you in the Kremlin.80 Please accept my best wishes for your good health for many years and speedy victory over our common enemy.”
- Considerable attention in the Soviet press was accorded to Johnston’s stopovers on his return trip to the United States at Magnitogorsk, Sverdlovsk, and Omsk. In a statement at the last city, his favorable comments about the development of Siberia and his expression of confidence that “the mutual economic and commercial relations of the Soviet Union and America would expand and become stronger” were prominently reported. (861.9111 RR/7–344) After his return home, Johnston contributed an article, “My Talk with Joseph Stalin,” to the Reader’s Digest, vol. xlv (October 1944), pp. 1–10.↩