761.74/58: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:12 p.m.]
1720. The Bulgarian Minister told me last night in the strictest confidence that on the occasion of Sobolev’s visit to Sofia, on instructions from his Government he had proposed to the Bulgarian Government that it enter into a mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union in which event the Soviet Government would not object to Bulgaria thereafter joining the Tripartite Pact. Should, however, the Bulgarian Government decide not to enter into a mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Government “preferred” that Bulgaria should not join the Tripartite Pact. The Minister stated that for the time being his Government had decided not to enter into either pact.