Soviet Far Eastern Relations Since 1941

XWE ARE ALL in the same boat now, and will either perish together or together triumph. Thus Litvinov in his statement on December 13, 1941 expressed the Soviet view of the Pacific war. How completely the short six months that separated Pearl Harbor from the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union had reversed the trend of relations between the U.S.S.R. and the Anglo-American is easily forgotten today. Right up to the moment of the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. relations with America and Britain had been deteriorating. Soviet commentators saw in British warnings of an impending attack a desire to exacerbate Soviet-German relations. And London and Washington suspected that every ounce of Soviet imports was destined to aid the Nazi war machine. But on the morrow of invasion, the die was cast. A common enemy threw the erstwhile strangers into a common camp. It was Churchill's immediate and unqualified recognition on June 22, 1941 of Britain's community of interest with the Soviet Union as a fighting ally that assured the coalition warfare of today and prevented the war from being perhaps fatally divided into private wars of differing ideological content. By July 12, Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. were wartime allies-not just associated powers and on August 2 the United States and the Soviet Union renewed their annual trade agreement with an exchange of notes to accelerate wartime trade under the loans being extended to the U.S.S.R. In August, Harry Hopkins made his flying trip to Moscow and reported back enthusiastically to President Roosevelt and Churchill at their Atlantic Conference. In September, the Soviet Union, along with other anti-Axis in Europe endorsed the Atlantic Charter. In October the Beaverbrook and Harriman missions to Moscow paved the way for more cooperation and material aid, and November saw the extension of Lend-Lease to cover the U.S.S.R. For the Far East, it was of immense importance that the foundations of

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