FDR and the Massacre at Katyn (FDR was terribly naïve when it came to Stalin)

Fox News ^ | 12/08/2010 | Paul Kengor, Grove City College

[charlie72]

Be careful not to mention Alger Hiss because he was innocent you know. sarc

[charlie72]

Remember, according to the liberals, Joe McCarthy was stark raving mad and made up all that stuff about commies in the gov and Hollywood. sarc

[Hoplite]

It is possible to make an argument that picking a fight with Stalin in late 1945 made military sense.

I don't think such an argument stand for long, given what's known of the relative strengths and equipment of the prospective combatants, to say nothing about the effects that an Anglo/Soviet conflict in Europe would have in the Pacific.

[Sherman Logan]

I didn't say it was a good argument or one that I agree with, only that one can be made.

Only an autocracy can effectively implement such "stab the ally in the back" maneuvers, though, and I'm quite glad I live in a society where it isn't possible.

BTW, it is entirely possible Stalin might have tried a "pre-emptive strike" of this type had not the Bomb given him excellent reason to reconsider any such plans he may have had.

[Hoplite]

I didn't say it was a good argument or one that I agree with, only that one can be made.

Oh you're no fun anymore. </Python>

I reckon Stalin probably directed STAVKA to the same type of study Churchill did his Planning Staff with "Operation Unthinkable", and came up with much the same answer, i.e., let's not.

[Matt_DZ_PL]

Katyn was only a drop in the ocean of the Soviet terror. After so called liberation, Soviets murdered hundreds of thousand of others in the same Katyn way in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Hungary, etc.