When I read and study about tragic events of history, some make me angry, even enraged, while others make me just sad—plain old sad. The Yalta Conference in February, 1945 is one of my latter reactions.
Churchill Roosevelt and Stalin
This conference took place in a Crimea resort in early 1945, between the three great powers aligned against Nazi Germany and Japan—Franklin Roosevelt, U.S. President, Winston Churchill, Premier of the United Kingdom and Joseph Stalin, de facto dictator of Soviet Russia. For some time, Roosevelt and Churchill had wanted a conference with Stalin to settle issues regarding the upcoming World War II victory. These Allies were sure that final surrender of Germany could not be far off. Even victory over Japan should take place sometime later in 1945.
Roosevelt had only two months to live. His rapidly declining health had been carefully hidden from the American people all during the previous Fall’s election campaign. Churchill would be deposed soon after, in a surprise election upset by the Labour Party. Stalin’s tenure was assured, of course. While both Roosevelt and Churchill had to know Stalin was guilty of mass murders in the 1930s, in both Ukraine and the rest of the Soviet Union, they rationalized that his country had suffered by far the heaviest casualties from fighting Hitler’s forces. Also, when the Soviet army overwhelmed Poland and reached Germany’s borders, they felt the need to settle on dividing up Germany and Berlin.
Churchill hated the thought of Communists taking over Eastern Europe and the Balkans, especially Poland. But he thought he was powerless to stop this change. Roosevelt seemed completely disinterested in the fate of Eastern Europe. Stalin was a veteran of vicious political infighting, and he was able to read the other two leaders like books. He was aided by bugs implanted in the meeting rooms. He was probably also aided by the fact that both U.S. and British governments were riddled with Communist agents (initially confirmed in the late 1940s and 1950s and, more conclusively, later after 1989 when post-Soviet secret files on spies were released). But Stalin himself was a keen observer of human nature and body language in meetings. Combined with the other two’s sympathy for the suffering of the Russian people, Stalin was effectively in charge of the meetings.
Reports released over the years confirm that Stalin wanted to use Yalta as a stepping stone in his drive for world Communist domination. He considered even then that he was at war with his supposed “allies.” He thought their economies would collapse after the War, both nations would fall into chaos and conditions would be favorable for Communist world takeovers.
When Roosevelt and Churchill at first wanted to dismember Germany, Stalin initially agreed and wanted this included in surrender terms. However, at some point, he changed his mind on the issue. Secretly, he thought that if Germany was a whole nation, it would easier to take over.
Eventually, the Allies agreed to divide their conquered portion of Germany into three zones, one of which would be France’s. It didn’t seem to be made clear whether the Soviets would control all of Berlin or whether their territory would surround Berlin. This eventually cost the Allies dearly and required a Herculean effort to prevent their being forced altogether out of Berlin.
The situation with Poland was complex. Land east of the Curzon Line had originally been taken from Russia by force in 1921. This would be returned to the Soviet Union. To make up in area, Poland would be awarded portions of eastern Germany, together with expulsions of ethnic Germans. Although not revealed until later, this forced expulsion of Germans, which was repeated in Czechoslovakia, caused deaths of millions of them.
Stalin agreed that a new Polish government would have two elements, a pro-Soviet Communist portion and a return of the government that had been in London in exile since 1939. This promise was never kept.
The Yugoslavian Communist leader, Josip Tito, had supposedly worked out an agreement with the exiled leader of the Royal Yugoslav faction. Stalin had his other conference partners agree to this joint government. Even Tito soon rejected it, and became sole dictator of the country.
Besides effective assurance of control over eastern Europe, Stalin even won concessions for postwar railway lines across Manchuria. This was his price for agreeing to join in the war against Japan, although the Chinese leader, Chiang Kai-shek, was not consulted on the matter.
In an excellent book, “Stalin’s Curse,” by Robert Gellately, he dissects the results of Yalta in more detail. He emphatically disagrees with earlier reports that the conference was a “compromise” or even a Roosevelt victory. Alexander Cadogan, a member of the British delegation, stated that Stalin was
“much the most impressive” of the three leaders. “When he (Stalin) did chip in, he never used a superfluous word, and spoke very much to the point.” One of Stalin’s delegation later reported that, while not winning every decision, the dictator won 75% of them, and these were all the important ones.
After the Yalta conference, both Roosevelt and Churchill tried to paint the best picture of it. In a private conference, Roosevelt admitted that he had no choice but to yield to Soviet control of eastern Europe. After Munich in the 1930s, Churchill had laced into Neville Chamberlain, for his disastrous policy of appeasement of Hitler. Nonetheless, after Yalta, Churchill said, amazingly, that “…Marshall Stalin…wish(es) to live in honorable friendship….their word is their bond.”
Could Yalta have been prevented? Certainly, in July, 1944, when the Allies broke out of Normandy and started eastward, they could have made an all out push to penetrate into Germany as soon as possible. With vast resources at Eisenhower’s control, he seemingly could have even parachuted continuous supplies to his advancing troops. By February, 1945, if Allied troops had been close to Berlin, they would have held a much greater strategic and psychological advantage over the Soviets.
Of course, “what if” can never be. But when I think of the human misery inflicted on eastern Europe after Yalta, I focus on “what if” and my sadness is there, strong and clear.
Norman E. Hill
Norman E. Hill, FSA, MAAA, Meber AICPA
Member: International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association
Member: Society of Professional Journalists
Member: Society of American Travel Writers
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