IO Files: US/A/848
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Ray L. Thurston of the United States Delegation Staff of Advisers
At the reception given by our Delegation last night for the Delegations of Near Eastern countries I asked Mrs. Pandit how she liked Moscow. She made a wry face and said that everything was most difficult there and that although she should not reach conclusions on the basis of only one month’s residence in the Soviet Capital, she was already disillusioned. She said that she and her brother had changed their minds a great deal in the last year in respect to the USSR. She was particularly disturbed because in Moscow she had no opportunity whatsoever to talk with Russians and met only with members of the diplomatic corps. She went on to say that she was extremely grateful to Ambassador and Mrs. Smith who had been most kind to her, and she added that the American Embassy had been most helpful to her daughter, Chandraleka, on a number of occasions.
With further reference to her feelings about the Russians, she told how Vishinsky had approached her with respect to the voting on Argentina in the Security Council and advised her not to vote for that country and later found that the USSR was supporting the Argentine. In the light of this experience she was very angry because of Vishinsky’s speech in the political committee a couple of days ago in which he said that one test of cooperation between the Soviet Union and other [Page 165] countries would be the willingness of the Assembly to elect the Ukraine to the Security Council. Mrs. Pandit left the definite impression that India does not wish to withdraw from its candidacy of the Security Council.