Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/1365: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, December 30, 1939—3 p.m.
[Received December 30—10:35 a.m.]

1159. Counselor of the French Embassy told me yesterday in strict confidence that he and his Ambassador had come to the conclusion that the German Government is desirous of seeing a rupture of diplomatic relations between France, Great Britain and the United States and the Soviet Union20 because of the obvious advantages to Germany which would result therefrom.

Steinhardt
  1. Presumably over the question of the Soviet Union’s attack on Finland. See pp. 952 ff.↩