ABSTRACT
The importance of US assessments at this stage, before Barbarossa and the US war entry, is more indirect. The presentation of US assessments at this stage should instead be looked upon as an explanatory background to the immediate pre-Barbarossa assessments, and as a comparative benchmark for the British perceptions. The USSR was only recognized diplomatically by the US when the Roosevelt administration decided to do so in 1933. During war conditions the extra strain put upon the transport system, and on industry in general, would 'seriously jeopardize' the use of motor transport, which was considered to be a secondary, but at the same time important transport sector. Fugitives from the USSR reported that acts of sabotage by workers in the armament factories were becoming increasingly numerous. When millions of men obtained weapons in the event of mobilization, these weapons would soon be turned against the government.
