[Wallace T.]

Did Churchill veto the proposal because of the potential difficulties or because Washington would not have cooperated? British intelligence was likely aware of Communist infiltration in the State Department; President Truman and his advisors were not anti-Soviet at this time. Remember that British and American troops were constrained from advancing eastward into Berlin, Vienna, and Prague in order to let the Soviets claim the honor of taking these capitals. Had Patton taken Prague and Montgomery captured Berlin, Germany would not have been divided, and at least Bohemia would have escaped the Communist clutches. Because of the treason of bureaucrats like Alger Hiss and the naivete of leaders like Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, I suspect Churchill realized that this Operation Impossible was indeed impossible.

[tonycavanagh]

I think it was more case of the factors I listed in reply 46.

With the end of the Second World war Britain was broke, and the Empire was in trouble local liberation movements were popping up all over the empire, troops were needed, troops that could not be spared to fight the Russians.

Tony