AP Exclusive: Memos Show US Hushed up Soviet Crime

Associated Press ^ | September 10, 2012 | RANDY HERSCHAFT and VANESSA GERA

[cunning_fish]

>>>>>>One thing I remember from a college course I took on World War Two was that, during the Yalta Conference, Stalin proposed to Churchill and Roosevelt that he be allowed to take one million Germans and execute them. Roosevelt reputedly chuckled at this and suggested that they reduce the number to “only one hundred thousand”, at which time Churchill shoved away from the table and stormed out of the room>>>>>>>

Actually their conversation is carefully described in Kissinger’s “Diplomacy”. In fact Stalin urged Churchill and FDR to purge Nazy elite and SS officers after war. Churchill didn’t like both Stalin and his idea, FDR hasn’t supported as well.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Thank you for the info. I’ll have to check that out.

[cunning_fish]

Also if memory serves me well it was at Tehran. By Yalta conference Stalin was fully aware on Western attitude towards such a things.
As for a Katyn massacre it really hasn’t look like any significant event at the time no matter how awful it really was. Germans has killed more Jews in a single concentration camp on a slow day.
I’m not sure if FDR ever knew about an event but even if he knew such a knowledge hadn’t any diplomatic value.

In fact FDR and Churchill lost their chance for free Europe in 1941 under Molotov visit. Stalin tasked him to discuss postwar development and all he wanted is a recognition of Soviet gains from Finland (Karelia) and Romania (Bessarabia). Subject was rejected as “too early” because Allies weren’t sure if Stalin is able to survive 1941 and it was looking laughable he was claiming any gains.
The truth is it was too late after Stalingrad. Germany’s fate was sealed at that time and Stalin clearly had an upper hand.
It is true that Germans were willing to surrender to Americans instead of Russians and there was a chance to liberate a lot of capitals including Berlin preventing Soviet control but this time US military opposed Churchill’s demand to do it.
Blame Eisenhower if you want it. He has broken diplomatic protocol and wrote directly to Stalin at the time. They lied a lot to each other and Ike’s idea was to lure Soviets into attacking Berlin before Churchill could push political decision to send American troops instead. It wasn’t that much “lure” since he knew Stalin’s aspirations on a subject and his idea was to remove all his doubts.
The message was Berlin is not important for American command. Eisenhower hasn’t given a flying !@#$ about European future at the time. It was his idea to reduce casualties and I think FDR secretly supported it for a sake of his felow Americans.
The problem is FDR hasn’t felt Cold War coming. He was pretty ideaistic with his concept of “four policemen” - US, UK, USSR and China as a future global police. Churchill was realistic, he has predicted a Cold War. He knew Britain is getting irrelevant as a power, China is still irrelevant and Soviet Union is a subject of hostile ideology to be in any stable alliance with. Stalin was realistic too and he has realized a Cold War coming. He was skeptical on UN as effective peacekeeping power as well and tried his best to build a buffer zone of friendly regimes to prevent a redux of foreign invasion. Soviets belived Red Europe is a key to their security. You coudn’t change their mind after 10 million military and 20 million civilian casualties they’ve suffered.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks dfwgator.

The American POWs sent secret coded messages to Washington with news of a Soviet atrocity: In 1943 they saw rows of corpses in an advanced state of decay in the Katyn forest, on the western edge of Russia, proof that the killers could not have been the Nazis who had only recently occupied the area.

BTW, I love Patton, but the idea that the allies would have been able to run the Red Army right out of eastern Europe -- particularly in the face of the summit agreements, and the fact that the British could barely be convinced to fight the Germans after the German army had been mauled by that very same Red Army for five years -- is a fantasy. Now, the BOMB (or threat thereof) would have done the trick, but that wouldn't be ready for a few months, and it took the entire US inventory (2 bombs) to get Japan to surrender. A WWII vet in the family reportedly said, upon his return from Europe, "we should have let the Krauts whip them Russkies."