Word: pacts
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Last week Comrade Stalin gave his countrymen the explanation he had owed them since that Sunday morning when Russians woke up to learn that Germany had invaded their country. It was his job to explain why he had promoted the 1939 Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, which enabled Adolf Hitler to pick off his enemies by ones and twos until he was free to tackle Russia. Taking to the microphone, with a big pitcher of tea at his elbow, Comrade Stalin saluted his fellow comrades in patriarchal tones...
That danger, explained Comrade Stalin, was caused by the fact that Germany "suddenly and treacherously violated the Non-Aggression Pact. ... It may be asked: How could the Soviet Government have consented to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous fiends as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was not this an error on the part of the Soviet Government...
...every indication in Tokyo that the Government was giving responsible consideration to many matters arising out of Germany's attack on Russia, which, in spite of official denials, caught Japan as flat-footed as everybody else. Venturesome Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka, who promoted and signed both the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy and the Neutrality Pact with Russia, hastened to explain things to Emperor Hirohito...
...Neutrality Pact with Russia. The Japanese are honorable people, not treaty-breakers like Hitler, and a Japanese would never think of violating a solemn covenant unless its violation became the more honorable course than the maintenance of its sanctity. In a mood of high morality the newspaper Yomiuri suggested to the Government that the national interest is the highest ethics. "There is no other way," concluded Yomiuri, "except to march forward in a fixed line of national policy and long-standing tradition...
...Much Talk? When he returned from his last junket to Berlin, Rome and Moscow, Mr. Matsuoka was welcomed at a mass meeting sponsored by the City of Tokyo and the Imperial Blue Assistance Association. Bubbling with his accomplishment, he told how he and Joseph Stalin had signed their Neutrality Pact...