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From The Lattimore Story by John T. Flynn, 1953
. . . As far back as 1936 he [i.e. Owen Lattimore] had called on American Ambassador Bullitt in Moscow. He wanted to talk about "the most inspiring thing that has happened, namely, that the Mongols had acquired their
independence. He tried to hurry Bullitt into wiring the American government to hurry its recognition of the Mongolian People's Republic. Bullitt testified that this was an extraordinary statement, because at that very moment Mongolia was a part of China and ruled by the Chinese government. Moreover, on March 12, 1936, the Mongolian People's Republic had signed a protocol of mutual assistance with Russia. The Chinese government made a vigorous protest against this protocol. Yet at this moment Lattimore was trying to press the American Ambassador in Russia to urge government to recognize Mongolia as a separate state. Bullitt was amazed at Lattimore's impudence (pp. 4523-4524).
In 1945, in Solution in Asia, Lattimore was peddling this same line about Outer Mongolia—that it was a satellite of Russia "in a good sense." He laid down the Russian propaganda line on Japan. The Japanese Emperor should be liquidated (Solution in Asia, p. 189). In Chine we should build on the forward-looking men, by which were meant the men in Yenan, the Red capital. Early in 1945, Lattimore planned to go to Russia. This required an invitation from the Red Ambassador, Gromyko. Carter wrote Mrs. Lattimore that he hoped he might aid Owen in his project. He told her he wanted to get a dozen copies of Solution in Asia, which would "fit right into the build-up." He asked Mrs. Lattimore to get them to him He wrote Lattimore: "As soon as possible after receipt of copies I am going to descend upon Gromyko and lay plans for exploring the possibility of your recent proposal' (p. 3312). These dozen copies were sent to Litvinov, Voitinsky, Gromyko and
other Soviet officials in Moscow (p. 3313). The purpose of this, of course, could only be to let the Red leaders know what Lattimore was doing to promote the Red line in America and facilitate his proposed trip to Moscow. He could not possibly be trying to sell the Russians their own line. However, the trip did not materialize.
New York : Devin-Adair, 1953, pages 66-68.
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