701.611/1181
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me this afternoon. I asked the Ambassador with regard to his approaching return to Moscow and he said he had no idea how long he would remain there. He said that his own situation here had become intolerable because of the fact that he had no information from his Government and no instructions and that he was consequently placed in a position where he was occupying an important post but was doing no real work. He said he could not continue any longer that way and for that reason he would have to reach an understanding directly with his Government.57
The Ambassador asked general questions with regard to the progress of military developments in Tunisia. He stated that he had no information whatever as to the aviation situation in Germany and expressed the belief that the Germans would make an all-out drive again against Russia this summer. The Ambassador, however, seemed on the whole more confident and more optimistic than I had seen him at any time previously.
- On April 20, 1943, Litvinov had had a conversation with Assistant Secretary of State Adolf A. Berle, Jr., who wrote that “to my very great surprise, he said he had certain diplomatic matters to talk out with his Government. He did not see eye to eye with them in certain matters, and since he was not merely ‘an executive’, he wanted to discuss them directly with the people at home.” (701.6111/1180)↩