The decision on postwar borders had been set at the Tehran Conference in December 1943 between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. The blame for the Russian occupation of eastern and central Europe lies there. I don’t see how postwar survival of Rommel and Patton, while desirable, could have changed much.
When Germany surrendered we were still at war with Japan and had no idea that the atomic bombs would work. If defeating Japan was going to involve more years of fighting and a million casualties we wanted the USSR to bear some of the burden. If we had violated the Tehran agreement Russia would have reneged on helping us defeat Japan and might have used the opportunity to take even more territory in Europe.
And in what EFFECTIVE way did the Soviet Union help us defeat Japan? They played us for fools! The Soviet Union intercepted the message to Washington which confirmed their surrender. It was delayed and the Soviets moved into the picture at the veritable LAST MINUTE! WE were the suckers.
The Atomic Bomb worked at White Sands. Why wouldn’t it work at Hiroshima? OR are you suggesting the Japanese people wouldn’t have surrendered even after suffering the bomb’s devastation? Perhaps that was MacArthur’s thinking as he was all for invasion of the Japanese mainland.
Obviously, Truman’s decision to drop the bomb saved millions of lives.
Roosevelt’s turn toward Stalin and away from Churchill is one of the reasons I find him disgusting.
You are correct on the Tehran Conference, but there could and should have been changes made. As I said, we were played for suckers. The biggest sucker play was creating the United Nations.