NYT/AP: Famous Grandsons Debate 1945 Yalta Summit

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Famous Grandsons Debate 1945 Yalta Summit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 2, 2005


MAASTRICHT, Netherlands (AP) -- The grandsons of World War II leaders Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin debated the merits of the Yalta conference Saturday, 60 years after the critical wartime summit that drew borders for the division of Europe and the Cold War....

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''My grandfather had the highest regard for your grandfather as a wartime leader,'' British author and politician Winston S. Churchill told Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, Stalin's grandson, a retired colonel and military historian.

Dzhugashvili said he felt ''honored'' to be Stalin's grandson, despite Stalin's reputation in the West as a murderous despot. ''They say he did this and that. But he did everything to develop Russia,'' the grandson said.

Dzhugashvili said the three grandfathers were friendly during the famous wartime summit at the Ukainian resort from Feb. 4-11, but he said Stalin viewed the United States and Britain as implacable enemies....Churchill's grandson said his grandfather ''was concerned what would be the fate of Europe with the Red Army on its doorstep and at its throat.''...

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Some historians have criticized the meeting of the ''Big Three'' at Yalta....President Bush has also criticized the Yalta results, saying on May 7 in Riga, Latvia, that the United States played a role in Europe's painful division after World War II -- ''one of the greatest wrongs of history.''...Curtis Roosevelt, an educator and former United Nations diplomat....said the decisions made at Yalta were mostly about accepting reality after the United States' late entry into the war. Russia entered the war in June 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded; the United States began the fight in Europe after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Yalta-Leaders-Grandsons.html