I am not a big defender of FDR, but I know of no better way to defeat Nazi Germany than to keep the Soviets in the game, just as keeping the Nationalist Chinese fighting was important to the defeat of Japan.
Of the Mass Murderers of all time:
1. Stalin: 50 million
2. Hitler: 30 million
3. Mao tse-Tung: 20 Million
4. Chang kai-Chek: 15 Million
Poor China, having 2 of the top 4.
From: Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls
The Black Book of Communism (in my opinion the best scholarly work on the subject) seems to vote for Hitler as the answer to the question of who's worse, Hitler (25M) or Stalin (20M).
Also, remember Hitler ruled for a shorter period of time thus making the Hitler directed death toll much worse.
President Reagan had it right when he decribed the USSR as the Evil Empire, and President Bush is right to remind the world that the USSR was evil. Brutal dictatorships such as the Soviet Union, Nazi (National SOCIALIST) Germany, Communist China, and Saddam Hussein's (Baathist Socialist) Iraq have many things in common. To give one example, they all would not allow their people to keep and bear arms, since then the people could resist tyranny. But the liberals in the U.S. would like the Second Amendment to be repealed, showing once again their total ignorance of history (or perhaps their hidden agenda?).
The Red Army bled the Wehrmacht to death.
The main difference is: Soviet Communism was so assine it couldn't have survived for the long run. Menshovik Trotskyte National Socialism could.