Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/14000: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, August 15, 1941—7 p.m.
[Received August 15—6:35 p.m.]

1507. For the President, the Secretary and Under Secretary. Cripps and I saw Stalin from 6 to 7 this evening and delivered the joint message.68 Molotov was present. Stalin dictated his reply in our presence and made other comments which will follow this message as soon as the telegram can be coded.69

Steinhardt
  1. The first text of the joint message from Roosevelt and Churchill to Stalin, based upon reports from Harry Hopkins after his visit to Moscow, and containing a proposal of a conference to be held in Moscow, contained a few insignificant verbal differences from the official text. It was sent to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union in telegram No. 964, August 13, 1941 (740.0011 European War 1939/14009a). Ambassador Steinhardt reported in his telegram No. 1505, August 15, 1941, that the texts as received by the American and British Embassies in Moscow varied slightly in sequence and wording, which he and his British colleagues brought into conformity before presenting to Stalin (740.0011 European War 1939/14011). This first version is printed in Department of State Bulletin, August 16, 1941, p. 134. For the official text as signed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, see telegram No. 985, August 18, 9 p.m., to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, post, p. 822.↩
  2. Telegram No. 1509, August 15, p. 820.↩