711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/2024
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)
Mr. William R. Herod, Vice President of the International General Electric Company, Incorporated, called at my office this morning. He said that the Department’s letter of July 20, 1939,1 informing his company of the decision of the Navy Department in respect to propulsion equipment for possible use in destroyers to be constructed in this country for the Government of the U.S.S.R. was entirely satisfactory. He [Page 894] said that his company intended to prepare quotations in the hope of securing the contract for the propulsion equipment in question.2
After some general remarks on the efforts of the Soviet Government to obtain vessels of war in this country, and the way in which those efforts had been conducted, Mr. Herod stated that it was his distinct impression that officers in the Navy Department were strongly opposed to the whole idea of this Government’s permitting the Soviet Government to construct vessels of war in the United States.
I assured Mr. Herod that the policy of this Government in respect to the proposed transactions was clear, that it had been clearly expressed in communications addressed to interested American companies, and that the Department of State and the Navy Department were cooperating fully in dealing with all questions relating to this matter.