740.00119 PW/8–3145
The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to President Truman 52
I have received your message of August 27.53 I am glad that the misunderstandings, that slipped into our correspondence, have cleared away. I was not in the least offended by your proposal but experienced [Page 699] a state of perplexity because I, as it is now clear, have misunderstood you.
I, of course, agree with your proposal to secure for the United States the right of landing on our aerodromes on one of the Kuril Islands hi emergency cases in the period of occupation of Japan.
I also consent that a possibility be provided on a Soviet aerodrome on one of the Kuril Islands for landing of commercial planes. The Soviet Government expects reciprocity on the part of the United States in respect to the right of landing of Soviet commercial planes on an American aerodrome on one of the Aleutian Islands. It is the case that the present aviation route from Siberia across Canada to the United States of America does not satisfy us because of its long stretch. We prefer a shorter route from the Kuril Islands through the Aleutian Islands, as an intermediate point, to Seattle.