760F.6111/54: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 22—7:40 p.m.]
2287. Moscow papers for December 21st report that on December 20th Beneš presented to Molotov a number of Czechoslovak decorations for Soviet officers including Marshal Vasilevski.19 The speeches of Beneš and Molotov on this occasion are published. Beneš expressed his admiration for the Red army and his hopes for further successes and final victory over the enemy. Molotov expressed his [Page 734] appreciation for the awards and with reference to the Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty stated that it had strengthened the friendship between the two peoples for a long period and that it would serve to concentrate the forces of the two peoples in the struggle with the common enemy and for close friendly collaboration in postwar Europe.
- Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky, Assistant People’s Commissar of Defense and Chief of the Army General Staff.↩