This is hard to take, but apparently was a foregone conclusion based on the agreements at Yalta, that the Russians would get Berlin and surrounding territory.
Once again, it appears freedom is good at winning wars but tyranny is better at winning the peace. We were 50-60 miles away from Berlin when we halted. Patton felt he could take Berlin in two days. Compare that with 45 years of Stalin's deadly reign incorporating countless lives into a regime that killed some 80 million of it own citizens. The price for our acquiescence at Yalta was way too high.
In early May 1945, as the Allies shut down the Nazi war machine, Patton stood with his massive 3rd Army on the outskirts of Prague in a potential face off with the Red Army. He pleaded for General Eisenhower’s green light to advance and capture the city for the Allies, which also would have meant containment of the Russians. British Prime Minister Churchill also thought the move a crucial and beneficial one for post-war Europe and insisted upon it, but to no avail. Eisenhower denied Patton’s request, and the Russians took the region, which would pay dearly for years to come. Earlier that year, at the February conference in Yalta, President Roosevelt, with Churchill at his side, extended the hand of friendship to “Uncle Joe” Stalin and signed his Faustian pact. In so doing, the destiny of millions was reduced to mass starvation, blood revenge, and distant gulags. At the time, Patton understood the tragedy of this event and wrote, “We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see that they have it. This might mean war with the Russians, but what of it?”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/robert-orlando/the-foresight-of-patton/
Stalin was every bit as bad as Hitler.
It’s very easy to take a “pragmatic” view of our dealings with him in defeating the Nazis. But it all reminds me of an old tale.
The Fox and the Scorpion
Once upon a time a fox was trying to cross a river. The river was deep, and the current was strong, but the fox desperately needed to get to the other side. As he pondered his plight, a scorpion approached him. The fox was fearful and backed away in apprehension, but the scorpion spoke to him in reassuring words.
“There is no need to be frightened of me, for we both face the same predicament. I too want to cross the river; but if I try, I will drown.
I have come to make a deal with you. If I take you to a place that is shallow enough for you to cross, will you carry me on your back, so that I too may cross?”
The fox was still suspicious of the scorpion, but he really wanted to cross the river. “What guarantee can you give me that you won’t sting me if I carry you across?”, the fox asked.
“On my life I promise that I won’t sting you”, the scorpion replied. “Besides, if I sting you, we both will drown”.
The fox mulled the proposal over and over, and despite being one of the smartest creatures in the land, could find no flaw in the scorpion’s reasoning.
“Alright, you have a deal”, the fox said. “Take me to the shallow spot, and I will carry you across.” So off the two traveled, side by side until they reached a bend in the river where the water slowed and shallowed considerably.
“Climb on my back, and I’ll carry you across”, the fox spoke cheerfully.
The scorpion hopped on the fox’s back, and they ventured out into the river. The scorpion had been right. The water was shallow enough to cross, and the fox happily hummed to himself as he easily swam the distance. But right as he reached the deepest point of the river, he felt a sharp pang in the back of his neck.. The scorpion had stung him. He struggled against the poison and the current, but it was too late. He knew he was going to drown. With his last breaths, he cried”
“Why did you sting me? now we will both drown!”
“Because I am a scorpion”, his rider replied matter of factly, “It is my nature”.
And with those words, they both perished.
Sadly, in this case, it was the oppressed people of eastern Europe who were stung by the scorpion.
Although, we too paid a huge price in blood and treasure over half a century fighting and containing the communists.
Oh well. We can’t turn back the hands of time or change anything. All we can do is try to learn from the past, and trust God to work everything out in the end for good.
I contend that the territorial outcomes in Europe were foregone conclusions as early as June 22, 1941 when Hitler invaded the USSR. At that point it was inevitable that the United States and United Kingdom were going to defeat Nazi Germany at the cost of copious amounts of Russian blood, and that meant the Red Army was going to occupy all of Eastern Europe behind the “Iron Curtain” from Rostock to Trieste.
Gator might argue it was a foregone conclusion as early as August 1939 when Stalin and Hitler signed the Non-Aggression Pact. If he were to do so, I could see his point even if I might not go that far.
Despite what Patton said, the political reality was that the American public, with an as of yet unfinished war with Japan, were not going to turn on their erstwhile Soviet allies. And there was no way you could convince them to do so.