711.00/9–1646: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Durbrow) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 16—6:31 a.m.]
3484. While reproducing lengthy passages from Pepper’s42 and Robeson’s43 speeches at Madison Square Garden, Soviet press September 15 carries only following brief allusion Wallace’s speech:44
“Wallace and Senator Pepper appealed for improvement in Soviet US relations and demanded return Roosevelt’s foreign policy.
Audience loudly applauded those portions Wallace’s speech in which he censured imperialism and speculation on threat of war, and it greeted with shouts of disapproval certain of his statements directed against USSR.”
This is first reference to his speech that has appeared in Soviet press.
Sent to Dept as 3484; repeated AmEmbassy Paris 358, AmEmbassy London 369.
- Claude Pepper, Senator from Florida.↩
- Paul Robeson, Negro singer and leader.↩
- Speech given by Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace on September 12, which contained passages critical of the foreign policy being followed by President Truman and Secretary of State Byrnes, especially toward the Soviet Union. For text, see the Washington Post, September 13, 1946, p. 16. For remarks made by President Truman in regard to this speech at his news conference of September 12, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1946 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 426–428 passim; and for remarks at his news conference of September 20 when he announced that he had asked Secretary Wallace to resign from the Cabinet, see ibid., p. 431.↩