Yalta FDRs greatest achievment or his greatest disgrace?

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Bush buries the shame of Yalta
Phyllis Schlafly (archive)

May 16, 2005 | printer friendly version Print | email to a friend Send

Thank you, President George W. Bush, for correcting history and making a long overdue apology for one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's tragic mistakes. Speaking in Latvia on May 7, Bush repudiated "the agreement at Yalta" by which powerful governments negotiated away the freedom of small nations.

Bush accurately blamed Yalta for "the captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe" and said it "will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history." This admission has been 50 years coming, and Bush's words assure that "the legacy of Yalta was finally buried, once and for all."

It was at Yalta, a filthy Russian port on the Black Sea, where our dying president in February 1945 made a secret agreement with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin to surrender millions of people to Communist oppression behind what Churchill a year later labeled the Iron Curtain. No treaty was submitted to the U.S. Senate; indeed, the record of what went on at Yalta was not released until 10 years later.

The Soviets demanded, and FDR acquiesced, that the conference be held on Soviet soil (where they could plant listening devices). Churchill said, "If we had spent 10 years on research we could not have found a worse place in the world than Yalta. ... It is good for typhus and deadly lice which thrive in those parts."

FDR came home from Yalta and made a false report to Congress. Calling it "a personal report to you and to the people of the country" he asserted, "This conference concerned itself only with the European war and with the political problems of Europe, and not with the Pacific war."

Here is a list of the European AND Asian concessions he made to Stalin, which were confirmed by the Yalta documents released on March 16, 1955.

- Poland was turned over to the Soviet Union. The United States and Britain agreed to recognize Communist stooges as the new Polish government and to withdraw recognition from the legitimate anti-Communist government of Stanislaw Mikolajczyk.

- Germany was to be dismembered, its "national wealth" removed within two years, and several million Germans were to be sent to the Soviet Union to work as slave laborers. The record quotes Roosevelt as saying, "I hope Marshal Stalin would again propose a toast to the execution of 50,000 officers of the German army."

- All Russian citizens who had fled to Germany from Communism were to be forcibly returned to the Soviet Union (i.e., the gulag).

- The Soviet Union was allowed to keep control of Outer Mongolia, which the Soviets had seized from China. The southern part of Sakhalin and all the adjacent islands were given outright to the Soviets.

- The Kurile Islands were given outright to the Soviets, and Port Arthur was given to the Soviets for use as a naval base. The Soviets were given effective control of the commercial port of Dairen, the Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South-Manchurian Railroad, using the subterfuge of assuring that the Soviet Union's "pre-eminent" interests would be "safeguarded."

- The Soviet Union was given three votes in the United Nations, while all other nations got only one.

Roosevelt's defenders have tried to claim that his concessions were necessary to bribe Stalin to enter the war against Japan. The Yalta papers prove that was false: 3 1/2 months before the Yalta meeting, Ambassador Averell Harriman had relayed to Roosevelt a "full agreement from Stalin not only to participate in the Pacific war, but to enter the war with full effort."

Russia wasn't needed in the Pacific war, and letting Russia in simply opened the way for a Communist empire in China and North Korea. This set the stage for the Korean War in the 1950s and for the son of the original North Korean Communist dictator to threaten us with nuclear weapons today.

News photos of the Yalta meeting reveal the hovering presence of the Communist spy Alger Hiss. As the chief adviser to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Hiss attended nearly all the Yalta meetings and could be reached on telephone No. 3, right after FDR. with No. 1 and Stettinius with No. 2.

Hiss was given all top-secret files and documents about the U.S. position 19 days before the conference. Sen. William Knowland, R-Calif., said this made FDR "like a man playing poker with a mirror at his back."

While Republicans and honest writers such as David Lawrence and John T. Flynn denounced the Yalta betrayal, the pro-Roosevelt media praised it. Time called Yalta "a great achievement," Life called it "a success," and the New York Times called it "a milestone on the road to victory and peace."

But truth finally overtakes lies and cover-ups. President Bush set the record straight when he repudiated Yalta as part of the "unjust tradition" of Munich and the Hitler-Stalin pact that carved up Europe and left millions in oppression.

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I say it was his greatest disgrace even worse than rounding up all the Japaneses Americans.

the UN is for nerds

Bush accurately blamed Yalta
Not really , most of the European questions had been hammered out at Tehran . The "Iron Curtain" was an extension of the Central and Eastern European Federation from 1940 and the Stalin-Sikorski agreement of 1941 .
The United States and Britain agreed to recognize Communist stooges as the new Polish government and to withdraw recognition from the legitimate anti-Communist government of Stanislaw Mikolajczyk.
Absolute rubbish , under the Polish constitution The London based Polish government in exile ceased to be the Legitimate government once German forces were expelled , Stanislaw Mikolajczyk (funny name for a German ~;) )became Deputy Prime minister in the new government for two years until he left as the Russians were not keeping their part of the agreements .

If the list of concessions in the agreement is true, then it is a true disgrace. Giving the communist US blessing to start their reign of terror behind the iron curtain, simply unbelievable. FDR began losing it long time before Yalta, I suppose, and I wonder what would happen there if the other Roosevelt, Theodore, went to meet Stalin with Churchill. This way, two already broken men, FDR by disease and Churchill somewhat by age and his understanding that he failed to maintain the British Empire (even though he was on the victorious side) faced energetic and dynamic tyrant whose unstoppable march over eastern Europe seemed as threatening to them as Hitler’s appeared several years earlier. Guess they were simply trying to save their hides.

Yeah, if this is entirely true, than this is certiantly a disgrace. I would like to see a sort of more balanced view...

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Yeah, if this is entirely true, than this is certiantly a disgrace. I would like to see a sort of more balanced view...

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Believe me its entirely true. I saw a show on the history channel the other night about this. Churchill was very upset about it but didnt have the power to stop it.

Yep Churchill was against Stalin getting Eastern Europe but FDR want ed to be Stalin's friend ~:eek:

Yeah, if this is entirely true,

Believe me its entirely true.

Er... No , it is not ENTIRELY true .

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Originally Posted by voigtkampf

If the list of concessions in the agreement is true, then it is a true disgrace. Giving the communist US blessing to start their reign of terror behind the iron curtain, simply unbelievable. FDR began losing it long time before Yalta, I suppose, and I wonder what would happen there if the other Roosevelt, Theodore, went to meet Stalin with Churchill. This way, two already broken men, FDR by disease and Churchill somewhat by age and his understanding that he failed to maintain the British Empire (even though he was on the victorious side) faced energetic and dynamic tyrant whose unstoppable march over eastern Europe seemed as threatening to them as Hitler’s appeared several years earlier. Guess they were simply trying to save their hides.

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Oh what a glorious 'what if' scenario that would be! Something tells me Teddy Roosevelt and Churchill would have gotten along famously and Uncle Joe would have been hard pressed to get those post war 'arrangements' past Uncle Teddy.

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Originally Posted by Spino

Oh what a glorious 'what if' scenario that would be! Something tells me Teddy Roosevelt and Churchill would have gotten along famously and Uncle Joe would have been hard pressed to get those post war 'arrangements' past Uncle Teddy.

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In my impression so far, Theodore Roosevelt was a firm, tough fighter, one of my favorite American presidents, but above all a decent man who would not condone Stalin’s crimes and bless his occupation of eastern Europe for the sake of maintaining good relations with Russia. Yes, he would kick Nazi Germany along with Churchill, much better than FDR did IMHO, but would not have made this despicable agreement with the Butcher.

TR was the second to last man with decency to to hold the office IMHO. From there on, it was all a matter of 'how much do we compromise what we believe'. Ronny gave us a brief return to that, but I'm afraid he was an anomaly. As much as I think "W" is 10x better then Kerry, I can't say he's been a good leader on any front then defending us.

Oh come on. Apart from the unhistoric hyperbole in the Bush speech, this was just another attempt to play out the 'old Europe' against the new. And it isn't working. Even the Poles are withdrawing from Iraq. The Warsaw government is trailing in the polls, the Iraq war is hugely impopular there and Belka doesn't want to be the next Aznar.