Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Central and Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

123 Cabot, John M.

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Minister in Finland (Cabot)¹

confidential

[Helsinki, undated.]

The Scotts² invited my wife and me to dinner alone Sunday evening.³ I broached to him the matter of the negotiations for the formation of a new cabinet and the possibility that Communists would be included in the new cabinet. I said that this naturally disturbed me quite a bit since it would not be understood in the United States, and might have repercussions in some of the western European countries. I pointed out, however, that we could scarcely afford to become involved in Finnish domestic politics, that if it came to a showdown the Russians had many more means of putting pressure on the Finns than we had and that even if we were successful in preventing the inclusion of Communists our success might turn into a very costly failure if the Russians made it an excuse for taking a poke at the Finns. On this account I had limited the activities of my staff to discreet comments regarding the effect such inclusion would have on American public opinion.

The British Minister emphatically agreed with me. He said that we could not possibly afford to get involved in any such maneuver, and that we would have to hope that the Finns would work it out themselves without the inclusion of Communists. He seemed hopeful that they would. He said that perhaps it would be easier for us if he should do the quiet pointing out to Finnish friends of how American public opinion would react.

I thanked him and said that I was awaiting instructions from the Department. I felt that until I had received such instructions I could not avail myself of his kind offer.⁴

1. The source text was transmitted to the Department of State as an enclosure to despatch 161, March 7, from Helsinki, not printed. In that despatch, Minister Cabot observed that the conversation took place before he had received telegram 49, March 4, to Helsinki, supra.
2. Oswald Arthur Scott, British Minister in Finland.
3. March 5.

4. In his despatch 161 (see footnote 1, above), Minister Cabot commented as follows about the British Minister’s offer:

   “I do not think I shall avail myself unless pressed of the British Minister’s offer to pass along the probable reaction of American public opinion. Whereas in theory he may be correct in thinking that this is something which he can say more easily than we can say it, I am somewhat concerned lest we get our wires crossed in this delicate matter.”