Reply #41: Let's fight this with the truth --

[JDPriestly]

Bush must be very worried. His foreign policy mistakes have diminished the US in the eyes of Europeans and others in the world. Our intelligence community, which could not prevent 9/11, and our military, which is overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan, are not viewed as the deterrents or protectors they were before Bush took office. Putin is taking advantage of Bush's weakness by courting Europeans and claiming the moral high ground. Never since WWII has a Russian leader been able to credibly challenge America from a moral standpoint. That anyone listens to Putin at all indicates a decline in respect for the US, and it is Bush's (and Condoleeza Rice's) fault. Bush can't blame Clinton for this, so he is blaming FDR -- and he is relying on the ignorance of Americans about history to pull it off.

The fact is, although some Americans don't realize it, we did not win WWII on our own. We relied on our allies, primarily the USSR and Great Britain. Remember, the Germans attacked the British from the air and the Russians and east Europeans also on the ground. We suffered many military casualties, but the Soviets and the British took the brunt of the war. The Yalta Agreement was a compromise to ensure that the allies would not continue fighting -- among st themselves -- after the war.

The Yalta Conference took place in February 1945. At that time, allied victory was likely but not yet certain. The Russians surrounded Budapest on Christmas Eve in 1944 and, within just two weeks had advanced 220 miles to arrive, on January 27, 1945 to within 100 miles of the big prize, Berlin. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, pp. 1095-1097.

The Yalta Agreement was signed not just by Roosevelt and Stalin, but also by Churchill. Notice, there were two westerners to one Soviet. Roosevelt was near death (died two months later, April 12, 1945). Churchill was a healthy man and no wimp in anyone's eyes. All three men knew how war weary the world was. All three knew that the resources of their peoples and their armies were reaching their limits. All three knew that the war against Japan was not over and would be difficult to fight to the end. All three knew that their alliance was not an easy one and that it had been forged in the face of a common enemy, not out of any other common purpose.

Here are the facts on the Yalta Agreement:

An early section of the Yalta Agreement established the infant United Nations and determined that the organizational meeting would be held in the U.S. -- a provision that gave the U.S. a great advantage in post WWII international affairs.

Here is the text of the Agreement with regard to the
II. DECLARATION OF LIBERATED EUROPE

The following declaration has been approved:

The Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America have consulted with each other in the common interests of the people of their countries and those of liberated Europe. They jointly declare their mutual agreement to concert during the temporary period of instability in liberated Europe the policies of their three Governments in assisting the peoples liberated from the domination of Nazi Germany and the peoples of the former Axis satellite states of Europe to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems.

The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations.

To foster the conditions in which the liberated people may exercise these rights, the three governments will jointly assist the people in any European liberated state or former Axis state in Europe where, in their judgment conditions require, (a) to establish conditions of internal peace; (b) to carry out emergency relief measures for the relief of distressed peoples; (c) to form interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of Governments responsive to the will of the people; and (d) to facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections.

The three Governments will consult the other United Nations and provisional authorities or other Governments in Europe when matters of direct interest to them are under consideration.

When, in the opinion of the three Governments, conditions in any European liberated state or former Axis satellite in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult together on the measure necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in this declaration.

By this declaration we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our pledge in the Declaration by the United Nations and our determination to build in cooperation with other peace-loving nations world order, under law, dedicated to peace, security, freedom and general well-being of all mankind.

In issuing this declaration, the three powers express the hope that the Provisional Government of the French Republic may be associated with them in the procedure suggested.



Temporary agreements were reached with regard to various countries such as the division of Germany, France, Poland (all three major issues), Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, etc. Iran was put on hold.

The big problem was how to ensure unity in the ongoing fight against Japan. At the time, any one of the three allies, USSR, Britain or the U.S. could have made a deal with Japan and left the other one or two countries alone to fight on in Asia.

Here is the agreement reached on Japan:

AGREEMENT REGARDING JAPAN

The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter into war against Japan on the side of the Allies on condition that:

1. The status quo in Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People's Republic) shall be preserved.

2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.:

(a) The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union;

(b) The commercial port of Dairen shall be internationalized, the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union in this port being safeguarded, and the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the U.S.S.R. restored;

(c) The Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South Manchurian Railroad, which provide an outlet to Dairen, shall be jointly operated by the establishment of a joint Soviet-Chinese company, it being understood that the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union shall be safeguarded and that China shall retain sovereignty in Manchuria;

3. The Kurile Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union.

It is understood that the agreement concerning Outer Mongolia and the ports and railroads referred to above will require concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The President will take measures in order to maintain this concurrence on advice from Marshal Stalin.

The heads of the three great powers have agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union shall be unquestionably fulfilled after Japan has been defeated.

For its part, the Soviet Union expresses it readiness to conclude with the National Government of China a pact of friendship and alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China in order to render assistance to China with its armed forces for the purpose of liberating China from the Japanese yoke.

Joseph Stalin Franklin d. Roosevelt Winston S. Churchill

February 11, 1945.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1945YALTA.html (public domain document)

See also http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yalta.htm (additional sections of the agreement)

As we now know, the US dominated in the reorganization of post-war Japan and Western and Southern Europe, while the USSR dominated the reorganization of Eastern Europe.

An important historical fact that is often forgotten is the competing claims of Bulgaria and Greece for certain territories after the war. The U.S. was heavily involved in supporting Greece in its struggle over that territory after the war.

The fate of Eastern Europe was tragic, but, remember, the Russian Army had already passed through it and established a foothold there before the Yalta Agreement was signed. The fact is, we didn't do badly at Yalta in many respects. Based on the Yalta Agreement and good diplomacy -- with the exceptions of Johnson and Nixon due to the Viet Nam War and the Bush administration due to Iraq. The July 2002 memo that was released during the British election campaign is going to damage Bush's reputation even more. This is a sad time for the US.

Bush's lashing out at FDR is simply a desperate attempt to distract the attention of the public from his own failed policies. It won't work. We need to constantly return our attention to the real issues of the day -- Bush's corruption, dishonesty and poor judgment.