According to Ulam, such notions reveal Sadoul as "one of the world's greatest optimists: how could a few Allied military specialists reorganize an army that did not exist?" Ulam describes Sadoul as "rather foolish", and sees his reading of the temporary Franco–Russian alliance as "idiotic". The historian also highlights Lenin's own commentary on the news: "Please add my vote to those who are in favor of receiving food and weapons from the Anglo–French imperialist robbers." Scholar Jean Delmas notes that the Bolshevik pledge to the Entente "rested solely on the personality of Trotsky": "even Sadoul acknowledged that Lenin wrote off any military adventure." According to researcher Dominique Lejeune, Niessel's offer of assistance was itself unconvincing, and mutual trust was sabotaged by the Japanese landings in the Russian Far East.