861.001/4–646
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (Molotov) to the American Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith)
Esteemed Mr. Ambassador: I am sending for your information the following text of the answer of Generalissimo I. V. Stalin to the letter of President Truman handed by you to I. V. Stalin on April 4.
“Moscow, April 6, 1946.
Dear Mr. President: I had a conversation with your Ambassador General Smith who presented your letter to me. General Smith is known to us as one of the outstanding representatives of the American Army and you may have no doubt that he will be shown cooperation in his new post in Moscow.
In the conversation I expressed my opinions in regard to those questions which he touched upon in accordance with your instructions. I may only add that in the Soviet Union the significance of the United Nations Organization is fully understood as is also the undesirability of using such an organization for any unilateral aims such as took place in the past in relation to the League of Nations.
I thank you for your invitation transmitted to me to visit the United States. Unfortunately the doctors oppose my long journeys and I am obliged to take this into account.
With sincere esteem, I. Stalin”
Ambassador N. V. Novikov78 has been instructed to transmit the above answer of Generalissimo I. V. Stalin to the addressee.
I beg you, Mr. Ambassador, to accept the assurances of my highest esteem.
- Nikolay Vasilyevich Novikov, Minister Counselor of Embassy in Washington, who succeeded Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko as Ambassador of the Soviet Union, did not present his letters of credence to President Truman until June 3, 1946.↩