Mission to Moscow

When i was your ambassador in russia,

i little expected to

write "mission to moscow,"

much less to see it

projected on screen.

But when germany

attacked russia,

the soviet union became one

of the nations fighting hitler.

And it was a desperate hour.

If hitler were to destroy

the red armies

and to smash the soviet union,

the 3 aggressor nations

would dominate europe,

asia, and africa.

The riches

of these 3 continents

and the enslaved labor of 3/4

of the population of the world

would be harnessed to conquer

the rest of the earth.

The americas would be next.

Us.

Unity among the forces

fighting hitler was vital.

Nothing, as i saw it,

was more important than

that the fighting nations should

understand and trust each other.

There was so much prejudice

and misunderstanding

of the soviet union,

in which i partly shared,

that i felt it was my duty

to tell the truth

about the soviet union,

as i saw it, for such value

as it might have.

If i were down there

in the audience with you,

there are certain things

that i would want to know

about the man

who's telling the story

so that i could assess

the reliability of his judgment

and his bias

or his lack of bias.

Those things about me,

you are entitled to know.

I would want to know them

if i were you.

Well, they're very simple.

My people were pioneers.

They came to new orleans

on a sailing ship.

I was born in wisconsin,

educated in the public schools,

graduated from the university

of wisconsin,

and went to washington as one

of woodrow wilson's young men.

My religious convictions

are basic.

My sainted mother was an

ordained minister of the gospel.

I think that i am

peculiarly the product

of our great country

and its free institutions

and its opportunities in a

competitive society of free enterprise.

I came up the hard way,

and i am glad of it.

I have a deep conviction

and a firm faith that

that system and our form

of government

is the best that the world has

yet produced for the common man.

But while in russia, i came

to have a very high respect

for the integrity and the

honesty of the soviet leaders.

I respected the honesty

of their convictions,

and they respected mine.

I also came back

with a firm conviction

that these people were

sincerely devoted to world peace,

and that they

and their leaders

only wanted to live

in a decent world

as good neighbors

in a world at peace.

That peace has

not yet been won.

If unity,

mutual understanding,

confidence in each other

was necessary to win the war,

it is still more necessary

to win the peace,

for there can be

no durable peace

without an agreement among those

nations that have won the war

that they will project that

peace and maintain that peace

and protect that peace.

That is why i wrote

"mission to moscow."

That is why i am

deeply grateful

to those fine patriotic

citizens the warner brothers

and to their great organization

of dramatists, artists,

and technicians who have

projected this book upon the screen

for you, my fellow citizens

of the americas,

and for you, my fellow free men

of the world.

I thank you.

Without prejudice

or partisanship,

i offer to my fellow americans

the facts as i saw them

while united states ambassador

to the soviet union.

No leaders of a nation have been

so misrepresented

and misunderstood as those

in the soviet government

during those critical years

between the two world wars.

I hope that my book will help

to correct that misunderstanding

in presenting russia

and its people

and their gallant struggle

to preserve the peace

until ruthless aggression

made war inevitable.

The events of which i speak

may be said to have begun on

a historic day in june 1936.

In the palace of

the league of nations at geneva,

a little man of great dignity

is making a plea

to the delegates of 52 nations

that are members of the league.

It is his majesty haile

selassie, emperor of ethiopia.

Ethiopia is but the first

to fall before fascist barbarism.

Who knows which country

will be next?

In violation of the covenant,

a certain government considered

that the european situation

made it imperative at any price

to obtain the friendship of their

axis neighbors germany and italy.

The price paid was

the abandonment of ethiopia

to the greed

of the italian government.

If a strong government finds that it

can with impunity destroy a weak people,

then the hour has struck

for that weak people to appeal

to the league of nations to give

judgment in our freedom.

God and history will remember

your judgment.

Mr. Litvinov, first delegate

of the soviet union,

wishes to address the assembly.

Gentlemen,

need i remind you

the league was formed

for one great ideal:

To protect the rights

of all its member nations,

both large and small.

Mine is perhaps the largest,

and we fear no aggressor.

But we are here to uphold

the principle of

collective security

for even the smallest nation.

This ideal of maintaining a peaceful

world through united strength

is now being threatened

seriously for the first time.

The eyes of the world

are upon us.

Our decision and our actions now

may decide the course of history

for the next thousand years.

Can you not understand

that peace is indivisible?

There is no security

for any of us

unless there is security

for all.

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