RUSSIAN-US RELATIONS STRAINED
| WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 1939
The strongest statement thus far issued by the American Government in disapproval of warlike aggression today brought United States-Soviet Union relations close to the breaking point. . . . President Roosevelt and the State Department were obviously weighing the next step following three that they have taken, while congressional leaders and spokesmen for public opinion clamored for severance of diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia as a stroke of protest.
The American government has already: (1) offered its good offices in settling the Russo-Finnish conflict; (2) protested against air bombardment; (3) issued - today - a stinging indictment of the Soviet aggression. In this rising sequence of indignation, an early step might be the breaking of relations, and officials are now examining that eventuality.
The Monitor is looking back at the events of World War II.