Foreign Relations of the United States, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939

711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/2424

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)

[Washington,] December 1, 1939.

The Assistant Secretary of War¹⁷ called me by telephone this morning. He said that he had just been informed that agents of the U.S.S.R. had recently approached the Boeing Aircraft Company¹⁸ with a view to the purchase of four-engine bombing planes and manufacturing rights for the same, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation¹⁹ with a view to the purchase of pursuit planes and manufacturing rights for the same, and a third company with a view to the purchase of a large number of airplane engines. He said that from the information which he had received, it appeared likely that the U.S.S.R. would attempt within the next few days to close a number of contracts with a number of American airplane manufacturers. In view of the situation in Finland,²⁰ he considered that these activities of Soviet agents constituted a serious problem, and he asked what the Department was prepared to do.

I told Colonel Johnson that I would discuss the matter with my colleagues and superiors and call him by telephone later in the day.

After discussing the matter with Mr. Moffat, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Berle, Judge Moore, and the Secretary, I called Colonel Johnson again by telephone. I told him that serious consideration was being given to the possibility of issuing a statement in the very near future which would have the effect of making applicable to the U.S.S.R. the policy enunciated by the Secretary on June 11, 1938,²¹ in regard to the sale of airplanes and aeronautical equipment to nations the armed forces of which were engaged in bombing civilian populations from the air, I suggested that in the meantime he might endeavor informally to dissuade the American manufacturers whom he had mentioned from entering into contracts with agents of the U.S.S.R.

Colonel Johnson said that he had already done so.

Colonel Johnson read me the United Press report in regard to this matter.

I told him that the representative of the press who had spoken of the matter at the Secretary’s Press Conference had stated that his information came from the War Department, and that it would appear that someone in the War Department had talked indiscreetly.

Colonel Johnson sent me the attached memorandum²² in regard to the proposed contract with Boeing.

Joseph C. Green

17. Louis Johnson.
18. Seattle, Washington.
19. New York, N. Y.
20. Soviet troops had begun the invasion of Finland on November 30, 1939.
21. See the memorandum of a press conference of the Secretary of State, Department of State, Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931–1941 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1943), p. 421.
22. Not printed.