I regret that, although I made two or three determined efforts, I have been unable to marshal my thoughts sufficiently to comment intelligently on your memorandum entitled "The United States and the Soviet Union", which Mr. Beaudry asked me to let him have before the end of November. I am, however, returning copy No. 33 as I do not wish to have continuing responsibility for its custody after I leave the department.

I found it difficult to comment on a memorandum of this nature and to single out individual chapters or paragraphs without, in fact, suggesting a complete revision.

I found it difficult to agree with a number of premises upon which the appreciation is based, but I realize it is futile to dispute a point without putting forward detailed and cogent arguments for my disagreement.

One of the points which struck me is that you have, for purposes of argument, apparently placed the United States and the Soviet Union on the same basis which, I think, gives a somewhat distorted picture and does not take into account the other important factors in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

There is a tendency in your memorandum to discuss the struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States of America as a struggle between communism and capitalism. In a sense I feel that this is perhaps a red herring. I think it could be argued with justification that if the United States and the U.S.S.R. were both communist states that the degree of conflict would be unabated and, if anything, might be even more sharply drawn. In a sense what I suppose I am trying to say is that the theory of communism is simply an instrument in the hands of Soviet leaders and bears no relation to the theory as propounded by Marx and Lenin.

While I have made one or two comments of a very perfunctory character and, for the most part, of a critical nature, I would like to say how useful I think this kind of study is in causing officers in the Department to give thought to these matters. I expect that your experience, after you receive all the comments, will be that the memorandum will have to be rewritten entirely and if it does I am sure that it will lose a great deal. But, nevertheless I feel that the Department as a whole will have gained immeasurably from being forced to clear their ideas on what is a pretty fundamental thing.

L. S[TARNES]

P.S. Please disregard my rude remarks in pencil in the margin† but I have a habit of reading with a pencil in my hand and I forgot myself.