761.67/10–845: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 9—7:10 a.m.]
3488. Embassy’s 3228, September 10. Although press remains quiet regarding Turkey, we have received more reports from Soviet and other contacts to effect that Russian people are being told by internal party agitators that USSR may go to war with Turkey.
Both British and French Embassies have received similar information. Our latest report is from Naval section of our military mission which is advising Navy Dept that it has been informed that at three Moscow factories, workers have been told by agitators that USSR may have to fight Turkey. Navy Dept will presumably pass this message on to Dept. While we are inclined to view these reports with definite reserve, they come from such widely separated sources that we feel they cannot be summarily dismissed as only idle gossip.
This domestic agitation might conceivably be designed to distract public mind from internal conditions, to explain continued military production and to spur factory output. Again it may be that these reports are being planted on foreign observers as part of an unusually refined war of nerves designed to soften up Turks. Whatever the real motivation, the reports deserve careful attention.64
To Dept 3488, repeated London 503, Ankara 61.
- The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Gallman) reported in telegram 10621, October 11, 5 p.m., that “Foreign Office has received reports similar to those in Moscow’s 3488 but is inclined to discount them as part of war of nerves.” (761.67/10–1145)↩