The Foreign Service Journal, February 2008

Using information Wiley passed him from Riga and Tallinn, Hender- son convinced Under Secretary Sum- ner Welles to issue his famous non- recognition statement on July 23, 1940. As a result, the U.S. govern- ment refused to acknowledge the ille- gal and forcible incorporation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into the Soviet Union. In his speech at the American Foreign Service Association’s Mem- orial Plaques Ceremony on May 4, 2007, U.S. Nicholas Burns remarked: “I think as an American diplomat, one of the greatest moments of the last 70 years was President Franklin Roose- velt’s decision not to recognize the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.” Henderson and Wil- ey were responsible for most of the work behind the scenes. After Pearl Harbor pushed the U.S. into World War II and into an alliance with the Soviet Union, Hen- derson helped coordinate the U.S. Lend-Lease Program and other assis- tance to Moscow. In 1943, he trav- eled to the Soviet Union to conduct a six-month inspection of how Embassy Moscow was coping during the war. He even served for the last month as chargé d’affaires and oversaw the mission’s transfer to its temporary quarters in Kuibyshev (Samara) just in case Moscow fell to the Nazis. Henderson spent this brief and unex- pected assignment commuting back and forth between the two cities. Although he worked hard to help the Soviet Union, Henderson was convinced that the U.S.-Soviet al- liance was only a temporary wartime necessity. Stalin’s government was well aware of Henderson’s deep-root- ed antagonism. As a result, Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Maxim Litvinov lobbied the White House to have Henderson removed from his key position in the Division of European Affairs by claiming that he was an impediment to the U.S.-Soviet F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 4800 Wisconsin Ave. N.W. 202-537-3000 www.MartensVolvo.com Call for program details and additional specials. Contact Dana Martens at 202-885-5312 or email DMartens@MartensCars.com for more information. The New 2008 C-30 Now Available at Diplomatic Pricing! STARTING AT $ 19,995