811.91261/1–2447: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State
confidential
Moscow, January
24, 1947—5 p. m.
175. In view of Stalin’s statement to Elliott Roosevelt on exchange of cultural and scientific material and personnel,1 I propose to review in one note to Foreign Office all previous proposals for such exchanges and at the same time cover those now pending which have not been officially presented. Full text of Embassy’s note will be transmitted to Dept and we see no objection to making this public.2 In connection with foregoing, earliest possible clarification of question of registration of foreign agents would be extremely helpful.
Smith
- The text of the interview on December 21, 1946, between Elliott Roosevelt and Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, was published in an article in Look magazine for January 21, 1947. While Stalin admitted that relations with the United States had deteriorated, he said there could be no war, and he spoke strongly in favor of cultural and scientific exchanges of information.↩
- Ambassador Smith sent the text of his letter of February 3 to Foreign Minister Molotov in telegram 280 from Moscow on that day, not printed. The Department approved the Ambassador’s request to release the letter to American correspondents in Moscow, which was done on February 18. The text was also released by the Department and is printed in the Department of State Bulletin, March 2, 1947, pp. 393–394.↩