Replies

I thought the Baltic states was concession to Stalin that FDR made at the end of hostilities. Stalin demanded and FDR caved. Is my recollection of this accurate?

No, the USSR occupied and then incorporated the Baltic States into the USSR after the Soviets and the Germans divided up Poland under the terms of their "Non-Aggression Pact". There was a secret addendum to that pact that "allowed" the USSR to occupy the Baltic States. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 from the west Russia invaded Poland from the east. The Soviets went through the motions of saying that Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia all asked for Soviet occupation and then for incorporation into the USSR, but this was a fiction. Of course, the US did very little to stop it but to tell the truth there probably wasn't very much FDR could have done. Remember, this was before we entered WW II and many in the US still had an isolationist outlook on Europe.