811.001 Truman, H. S./9–2347: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State
niact
us urgent
2901. Embtel 2898, September 23.1 Do not believe Literary Gazette attack on President should go without protest. Accordingly, unless instructed to contrary, I intend to send following to Molotov tomorrow. If it is to be effective, protest should be made at earliest possible moment and press informed here.2
“During the year and a half that I have resided in Soviet Union I have been obliged with the deepest regret to witness in Soviet press an increasing flood of half truths, distortions of truth and utter falsehoods about my country and my government. I have tried to overlook this incendiary press campaign, feeling that to take issue with a myriad false or incorrect statements would simply be adding fuel to the flame of hatred toward my country which Soviet press has apparently undertaken to kindle in hearts of Soviet people.
However, an occasion has now arisen when I must break this self-imposed rule. An article by one Boris Gorbatov just published in Literary Gazette No. 39 is so wantonly libelous in its personal attack on the President of the US that I cannot permit it to pass without the strongest protest. It has thoroughly shocked me.
As I have told you personally on several occasions, I believe that I have a duty to Soviet Government as well as to my own, and that this duty is to inform the Soviet Government as honestly and frankly as possible of the beliefs and opinions of the people of my country. This being the case, I must assure you in the most solemn terms that every right-minded American citizen will be deeply affronted by this article and will feel that he in some way shares personal insult thus gratuitously offered to President Truman.
I cannot recall that Dr. Goebbels, of unsavory memory, at the height of our common struggle against Nazi Germany ever stooped to greater ridicule and vituperation against the head of an enemy country than has Mr. Gorbatov against the chief executive of a friendly and allied state. In this connection, I would never have believed that a Soviet writer would permit himself, or be permitted, to draw an analogy between [Page 589] the press of the US and our recent common enemy, Hitler. Mr. Gorbatov goes so far as to imply criticism of President Truman for associating with the President of Brazil,3 our faithful and devoted ally in the recent war, to whom is unwarrantably inputed some prior association with axis powers. Any unprejudiced observer, familiar with the course of history since 1939, would agree that such criticism comes with extraordinarily bad grace from a Soviet writer.
I cannot believe that Mr. Gorbatov’s article represents the opinion of the Soviet Government, and I therefore request that it be officially disavowed and if, contrary to my belief, it has the approval of the Soviet Government, I would appreciate a statement to that effect.”
- Not printed. This telegram relayed a translation of the article “Harry Truman” by Boris Leontyevich Gorbatov which was published in the Literary Gazette, No. 39, for September 20, 1947. A translation was printed in the New York Times, September 30. A personal attack upon Secretary of State Marshall also appeared in this publication on September 24.↩
- The Department of State approved the proposed letter to Molotov in telegram 1773 to Moscow on September 24, 7 p. m., with the suggestion of wording to substitute for the next to the last paragraph. This telegram did not arrive in time, as Ambassador Smith explained in his telegram 2919 on September 26. He had sent his letter dated September 25 at 4:45 p. m., on the 26th, with this change in the last sentence of the third paragraph: “This being the case, I must assure you in the most solemn terms that every fair-minded American citizen, regardless of his political opinions, will be deeply affronted etc.”. The Ambassador also proposed to release the letter to the press in Moscow at noon on September 27. (811.001 Truman, H. S./9–2647)↩
- President Truman had arrived on September 1 in Rio de Janeiro on a visit to President General Eurico Gaspar Dutra.↩