123 Kirk, Alan G.
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
No. 382
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the letter of instruction addressed to me on May 23, 1949, by the Acting Secretary of State concerning my appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.1
On Saturday, July 2, I called upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. A. Ya. Vyshinski, and handed to him a formal letter informing him of my designation as Ambassador of the United States and requesting an early opportunity to present my letter of credence to His [Page 632] Excellency N. M. Shvernik, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. A copy of this letter is enclosed for the Department’s files.2 At the same time I informally handed to Mr. Vyshinski an outline of the remarks which I proposed to make on the occasion of the presentation of my letter of credence. A copy of the outline of my remarks is enclosed.2
It is not generally the custom in Moscow to have an exchange of a formal address on the occasion of the presentation of a letter of credence by an incoming Ambassador unless the Ambassador makes a specific request therefor. I followed the local custom in this regard and upon presentation of my letter of credence to His Excellency N. M. Shvernik on July 4 at 1:00 p. m. there was only an exchange of brief oral remarks along the customary lines (reference Embassy telegram no. 1682, July 5, 1949).3 As President Shvernik’s remarks in answer to my brief address were entirely informal, no official copy is available.
Respectfully yours,
- Letter of May 23, not printed. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith had formally resigned as Ambassador of the United States to the Soviet Union in a letter to President Truman which was accepted on March 25, 1949. (See Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. iv, p. 829.) The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, gave the agrément to receive Vice Adm. Alan Goodrich Kirk as the new Ambassador in a letter of April 16. Admiral Kirk was nominated for the position by President Truman on April 20. He was at this time the Ambassador in Belgium and the Minister in Luxembourg.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- By telegram 1675 from Moscow on July 4, not printed, Ambassador Kirk advised the Department of State that he had just presented his letter of credence to President Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik, and had assumed charge of the Embassy. In telegram 1682 from Moscow on July 5, also not printed, the Ambassador reported that in reply to the remarks he had made, Shvernik had touched on east-west trade relations, but had not returned to this subject in the short, private conversation when had followed the presentation ceremony. The telegram concluded with the information that at the reception given on the evening of July 4 at the Embassy on the occasion of Independence Day, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko had “appeared in street clothes heading group 8 purely official Russians out of 98 invited and was reasonably agreeable.” (123 Kirk, Alan G.)↩