Quote Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar View Post
I also still hold the Allies responsible for having given these acts legal status in their wartime treaties and talks and their lack of condemnation after these acts had been carried out.
Most summaries I have read regarding the Tehran, Yalta, & Potsdam summit meetings suggest that the Soviet "puppet" governments of Eastern/Central Europe were more or less a fait accompli. Short of an ultimatum to Stalin backed by the threat of force he wasn't likely to budge. In fact, both FDR and Churchill thought him fully capable of "stalling" his offense and allowing the US/UK forces to do most of the bleeding while the CCCP waited and swooped in for a big land grab at the finish. Their decisions were made with this in mind and in hopes of minimizing their own casualties. Was Patton correct? Should we have paused, re-organized the Wehrmacht under U.S/U.K. leadership and gone right after the Russians to kick them back to the 9/1/39 border? A bloody task for which the Western nations were not psychologically ready. Protests of Soviet action (and the action of the Czech and other regimes under Soviet influence) were pretty scarce prior to 1956, I agree, but I believe you seriously mis-caculate the position of the US and the UK as the war drew to its close.

Quote Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar
I also hold that the Western Allies were just as capable of mass murder or genocide as the Nazi's were. I use the progress of the 20th century as evidence that France, The U.K and the U.S were quite willing to put "morality" on the backburner when expedient.
If you mean in the general sense that ANY group, under a series of pressure events and with a leadership cadre devoid of any sense of morality, might be led astray then I think you speak to certain inherent weaknesses in the human condition.

The 20th century shows all of the states you mention balancing national interest against moral absolutes. Nevertheless I would disagree that morality was put on the "backburner" as a normal course. Were poor choices made in pursuit of some larger goal? Yes. Were some selfish interests pursued, sometimes at other's expense? Yes. Were these elements the dominant component of the policies of the nations you mention? No.