Hamilton Fish III was a congressman from western New York. His grandfather had been a secretary of state. On a nationally syndicated radio broadcast he thundered:

“Opposed though I am to Nazism, I am certain that American mothers will not willingly sacrifice their sons to make the world safe for Communism. It is "preposterous to think of America being aligned with Joe Stalin as our pal and comrade, with his hands dripping with blood of murdered priests and nuns and the same dagger in his hand which he plunged into the backs of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and our friend the little honest Republic of Finland."

That was pretty hard to argue with.

But something strange was happening at the very top of this brand new Roosevelt administration about how the Democrat, socialist regime, saw Stalin’s Russia. You might expect the State Department (responsible for overseeing America’s relations with foreign countries) would protect the interests of capitalist America. They’d done a great job so far, so there was nothing to worry about – or was there?

Tag words: Robert F. Kelley; Robert Kelley; Comintern; William Bullitt; Joseph Davies; Stalin; Loy Henderson; Loy Henderson; Ray Atherton; Charles "Chip" Bohlen; George Kennan; Eastern Division; State Department; Sumner Welles; Pravda; Izvestiya; Nicholas von Below; General Reinhard Gehlen; Paul Carrell;