• I then said, "No, read the agreement. We're not going to ask for that kind of thing."
• I was prepared to say, although I couldn't commit us to this, that anything that was used up we never would ask them to pay for.
• Later we had a terrific argument over the difference between "used up" and "used."
• They translated the agreement into Russian using the word that we would have called "used," that is, not new.
• So, when we got into negotiations with them and said that they must return some things which were not "used up," they thought we were using the word "used."
• Therefore, they said, "Well, these have been used."

It wasn't until [Charles] Bohlen was in negotiations, and heard the Russian word that he turned to our side and said, "You know, you're not using the same word."

• Then he got the agreement out and found that the translation was wrong.
• The word "used" was in there instead of "used up.
  •  "Consumed" was our word; "lost, consumed or destroyed."
  • “Consumed" was translated to them as "used."

This was one of the minor stumbling points of the negotiations that caused a long delay.

-- Oral History Interview with Michael H. Cardozo

Washington, D.C., May 29, 1975 - by Richard D. McKinzie

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/cardozom