Office of the Historian

800.01B11 Registration/11–749

Memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Thompson) to the Under Secretary of State (Webb)

confidential
[Washington,] November 7, 1949.

At the conclusion of Mr. Vyshinsky’s visit, the Secretary asked what the Department of Justice planned to do on the Amtorg case. I said that we understood they expected to propose to the Amtorg attorneys that they enter a plea of “nolle contendre”1 and that the Judge impose a fine. The Secretary felt we should clean up this case promptly, thought that if any fine were imposed it should be a nominal one and that it should be suspended. He felt that otherwise the Soviets might refuse to pay the fine and the case would drag on. He suggested it would be advisable for you to discuss this with the Attorney General.

Mr. Battle informed me just before his departure that the Secretary had himself talked to McGrath who said he would now really get into the case.2

  1. i.e., nolo contendere. ↩
  2. This final sentence was added to the memorandum in longhand.↩