January 7, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the subject of FDR’s relationship with Joseph Stalin during WWII is for many observers, a puzzle. How could the leader of the free world and the face of American capitalism have had a working relationship—let alone something resembling a friendship—with a person who embodied the complete opposite? A brutal, ruthless, totalitarian dictator who perpetrated mass atrocities on a scale difficult even to quantify. This is the story of one of the 20th century’s unlikeliest alliances.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people the subject of fd Your's relationship with Joseph Stalin
during World War Two is for many observers a puzzle.
How could the leader of the free world and the
face of American capitalism have had a working relationship, let
(00:33):
alone something resembling a friendship with a person who embodied
the complete opposite, a brutal, ruthless, totalitarian dictator who perpetrated
mass atrocities on a scale difficult to quantify. This is
the story of one of the twentieth century's unlikeliest of alliances.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here's greg hanging.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
On March twelve, nineteen thirty eight, Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops
march into Austria and annexed the German speaking nation for
the Third Reich. By March nineteen thirty nine, all of
Czechoslovakia is occupied by the Nazis. Stalin, like the Nazis,
(01:30):
is happy to put ideological differences aside, so in August
nineteen thirty nine, Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pack,
but they were allies in all but name. A difficult relationship.
Considering these two socialist governments, Nazi fascism and Soviet communism
(01:51):
hate each other. Here's Georgie Dreganoff, a member of Stalin's
third Assault Brigade.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Natoshta.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
We were taught to think of the fascists as our enemy,
so to change our personal opinion and understanding that with
the signing of this pact, they were now our friends.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
This, of course, was very difficult nashe.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here's a historian, Robert Glately.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Stalin was determined to give Hitler everything he needed, and.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Thereby Germany would have no reason ever to attack the
Soviet Union.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Adolf Hitler forms alliances with Italy, Japan, and now the
Soviet Union to create the world's most terrifying superpower. Here's
a historian, Sir Richard Evans.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
Hither came to believe that he was invincible.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
Every time his generals urged caution, he overruled them. He
believed that everything could be done if your will power
was strong enough.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
But less than a year after the non Aggression packs
signed on June twenty fifth, nineteen forty, Hitler's Blitzkrieg with
four million Nazi troops, defeat France in a mere forty
six days after steamrolling through Europe, his empire now nearly
encompasses all of it. Hitler sees the Soviets as subhuman
(03:36):
mud people. Despite the non aggression pack, Hitler thinks the
Soviet Union will fall just as easily as France. He
feels now is the time to do it. In the
early hours of Sunday, the twenty second of June nineteen
forty one, Hitler orders a surprise invasion into the Soviet
(03:58):
Union with more than three million Nazi troops.
Speaker 8 (04:03):
Without warning, Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Nion. It's the
largest land invasion in history.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
In one incredible act of ego, Hitler turns his most
powerful ally against him. Here's Stalin's personal interpreter, Valentine Breshkov.
Speaker 9 (04:28):
And when Molotov came to Stalin's office and told it in,
Stalin just lost his speech. He could not even speak.
He just sat down and was silent for some time,
because here he understood how Hitler practically tricked him, how
he misjudged to the.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Hitler, Stalin's misjudgment is monumental. In a month, German troops
are one hundred miles from Leningrad, Smolensk falls on July
sixteenth and Kiev is overrun in September. At a meeting
of the polit Bureau, Stalin moans all that Lenin created
(05:09):
we have lost. In desperation and at his weakest, Stalin
has to form a surprising new relationship with the Allies.
Speaker 10 (05:19):
Machine guns fifty caliber to defend our cities.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
As early as nineteen forty one, US President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt begins helping Stalin by sending airplanes, tanks, and guns
to the beleaguered Red Army.
Speaker 11 (05:34):
And the Weekend fight for three or four years.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
If Hitler is going to be stopped, the war in
the Soviet Union must be won. In October of forty one,
German newspapers announced to the world that the war is
effectively won. The British aren't doing much to help the Soviets.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill is of two minds. He despises communism,
(05:59):
but he also values anyone who fights against the Nazis.
Just before the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, he says,
if Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a
favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
The British relationship with the Devil is not very effective,
(06:19):
but Stalin knows he needs all the allies he can get,
and he is about to gain a much more powerful one.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
We interrupt this program to bring you a special news Polatouse.
Speaker 12 (06:31):
The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
President Rose Delta just announce.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
On December seventh, nineteen forty one, for the first time
in modern history, America is attacked by a foreign power.
When the Japanese bombed the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor,
over two thousand, four hundred Americans die and nearly the
entire US naval fleet and the Pacific is destroyed.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you've been listening to this story about how America
and the Soviet Union came to be allies in World
War Two, and how Roosevelt and Stalin would soon become
partners as well. The story of this alliance, how it happened,
and what would happen next. The story continues here on
(07:20):
our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of our
American Stories. Every day we set out to tell the
stories of Americans passing present from small towns to big
cities and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things
(07:41):
that we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
our American Stories dot com and make a donation to
keep the stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
(08:13):
of how FDR's war packed with Stalin during World War
Two came to be. Let's pick up where we last
left off. Here is our own Greg Pinkler.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Within twenty four hours of the attack, Roosevelt signs a
declaration of war against Japan. Four days later, as part
of their pact with Japan, Adolf Hitler declares war on
the United States and hit.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
The second book, written in on twenty eight but never published,
he made it fairly clear that once he had conquered Europe,
he would turn to America. For the Nazis is never
any end to war, because they believed that a race
on the Germans could only be kept vigorous by continuable
(09:05):
and continual conflict.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Americans rally. Here's John McCain.
Speaker 13 (09:12):
I was a very young boy, I think six years old,
a guy drove up and said to my father Jack.
He said, the Japanese of bomb Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
My father ran.
Speaker 13 (09:23):
Upstairs put some things together, and then next time I
saw him was three years later.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
President Roosevelt is under enormous pressure. No American president has
ever faced the challenge of fighting two wars at the
same time. With the fate of the world hanging in
the balance, Roosevelt and Churchill get to work. These two
men are all that stand in the way of a
(09:52):
world controlled by Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers. It
is time to make a deal with an likely partner.
They have come to the realization that the enemy of
their enemy needs to be their friend. If the Allies
are going to win this war, they need Stalin on
their side, and as it turns out, Stalin needs them more.
(10:17):
And Roosevelt is under no illusion as to the nature
of the Soviet ruler. Here's Susan Butler, author of Roosevelt
and Stalin Portrait of a Partnership.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
He had no illusions about Stalin. He went and thinking
that he was a tyrant, and that he was a dictator,
that he was as bad as any other dictator in
the world, which is what he said.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Culturally and politically, these two men are worlds apart. Roosevelt
is brought up in luxury and educated at Harvard. Stalin,
a cobbler's son, is beaten by his alcoholic father. He
drops out of college to evangelize the cause of his religion, Marxism.
He even mastermind a bank robbery in nineteen oh seven
(11:02):
in order to fill the party Coffers. Born Joseph Jugish Feeley,
he is a man of action who sees himself as
a fighter. In nineteen twelve, he changes his name to Stalin,
which means man of steel. Despite these differences, Churchill and
(11:22):
Roosevelt believe it is possible to persuade the man they
sometimes referred to as Uncle Joe by using the carrot,
not the stick. On December fifteenth, nineteen forty one, Churchill
sends Ambassador Anthony Eden to meet with Stalin at the Kremlin.
It is Stalin who has an idea on how to
(11:44):
best cement the friendship between the two countries. Eden is
shocked that, even with German troops surrounding the Soviet capital
of Moscow, Stalin is thinking so far ahead to the
post war world. Stalin wants an agreement that he will
be able to keep all the territory he's snatched by
(12:05):
acts of aggression and collusion with Hitler prior to nineteen
forty one, including Eastern Poland. When he hears Stalin's proposals,
Churchill rejects them out with In August nineteen forty two,
Hitler sends millions of Nazi troops to converge on an
(12:25):
industrial city so important to Joseph Stalin it bears his name, Stalingrad.
Hitler believes if he can take Stalingrad, he will be
one step closer to global domination. In desperation, Stalin turns
to the United States for help. If YECHISLOVT. Molotov, the
(12:48):
Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs, the second most powerful man
in the Soviet Union, is sent to Washington, d C.
To meet with President Roosevelt. Molotov, like most of Soviet leadership,
is no ordinary politician, but a former revolutionary. Inside his
(13:08):
suitcase the White House valets find some sausages and then
a pistol. Here are the words of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Speaker 14 (13:18):
The sacred serviceman did not like visitors with pistols, but
on this occasion nothing was said, Mister Molotov evidently thought
he might have to defend himself, and also he might
be hungry.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Molotov has made the journey to ask for an immediate
invasion of France in order to take the pressure off
the Red Army in the East, an operation Stalin calls
the Second Front, but just two years later will be
launched as d day before his first meeting with President Roosevelt,
(13:52):
Molotov as a surprise visitor late at night.
Speaker 15 (13:56):
Can I say a few words mister Molotov.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Before the meeting tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It is fifty three year old Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's closest
friend and chief Advisor's considered Roosevelt's eyes, ears, and not
surprisingly feet as well. This use of Hopkins as intermediary
was one of the classic tactics Roosevelt used to manipulate
the Soviets, or, as he called it, to handle them.
(14:25):
Here's George Elsie, the White House Naval intelligence commander and
advisor to President Roosevelt.
Speaker 12 (14:33):
I was a favorite word of Roosevelt's handle people, I
can handle someone. That phrase stuck in my mind and
I kept thinking of it as the war went on.
Roosevelt was always thinking he could handle people, no matter
who or what it was, that he would pull through
as the top dog.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The next morning, Molotov met President Roosevelt. He is careful
to take the advice he received in secret how badly
the war is going, even suggesting how the Nazis might
defeat the Soviet Union in nineteen forty two, which would
reap dire consequences for both the United States and Britain.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
We want very much to open a second front.
Speaker 12 (15:17):
That is a hope, that is our desires.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
There remains the question can it be done.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Roosevelt wants Molotov to go home with good news for Stalin,
which would then encourage the Soviets to keep fighting, But
shortly after Stalin receives further catastrophic news because of setbacks
in Africa and elsewhere, Roosevelt, along with Churchill, tell him
there can be no second front. In nineteen forty two,
(15:48):
Stalin is devastating. Back in America, Stalin is portrayed as
a hero, crowning him as Man of the Year in
nineteen forty two. Time megas Seeing called Stalin a pleasant
host who worked at his desk sixteen to eighteen hours
a day. Here again is George Elsie.
Speaker 12 (16:10):
Well, the American people, the public at large, were quite
unaware of the Soviet purges and of the relocation of
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. It
was necessary for the American leadership, the government, the president
have a sense of realism about the Soviet Union of
the public at It was not really essential for the
(16:31):
public at large to know that.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
Why not, We've got to win the war.
Speaker 12 (16:48):
That's what counted.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And you're listening to our own Greg Hangler tell the
story about how the alliance between the Soviet Union and
the United States came to be.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It wasn't quick and it wasn't easy.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
That initial salvo, that initial conversation in dialogue involved long
ahead of any other chance of even winning the war.
Stalin was negotiating for pieces of Poland and other parts
of Europe.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
After an Allied victory.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Propudiated turned back, but they kept at it. Then the
tragic news comes, at least from the Soviet Union's perspective,
that America and England will not in nineteen forty two
be pursuing a land invasion in France.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of course, that would be until June sixth of nineteen.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Forty four that that would happen, leaving Stalingrad and the
Soviet Union on that Eastern front on their own. When
we come back, more of the story of the unlikely
alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Here on our American story.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of what many have called the Deal with the Devil
FDRs World War II Pact, and Churchill's two with Joseph Stalin.
Let's pick up where we last left off. Here again
is our own Greg Hangler.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
On the nineteenth of November nineteen forty two, more than
one million Red Army soldiers beat back the Nazis. Meanwhile,
Roosevelt and Churchill open a kind of second front in
North Africa against the Nazis.
Speaker 15 (18:41):
The Yanks already the Doe Boys are spread out for
miles behind every tree and shrub, ready to strike the
enemy or repel infiltration.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But the Western Allies faced tougher opposition from the Nazis
than expected. This puts into jeopardy any plans to invade
France in nineteen forty three, the real second Front. Stalin
so crave. Then, in late November nineteen forty three, one
of the most important meetings of the twentieth century takes
(19:12):
place at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Here,
for the first time, the leaders of the Alliance, Roosevelt, Churchill,
and Stalin, the Big Three, will meet face to face
for four days and for the first time attempt to
win the war and shape the future of the post
(19:34):
war world. Moscow was about to fall to the Nazis,
Stalin is at a low point, and Roosevelt sees an opportunity.
Here again is Susan Butler.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Fdr.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Told April Harriman on his way to Moscow to meet
Stalin to work out Russia's immediate armament. Needs to pressure
Stalin to open the churches. Years later, two months before Terran,
Stalin not only opened all the Russian Orthodox churches and
seminaries throughout the Soviet Union, he freed the three Russian
(20:13):
or patriarchs whom he had put in jail in nineteen
twenty five. The churches remained open throughout Stalin's life.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Roosevelt's tactic is to find a common bond with the paranoid,
suspicious Stalin. He does this by teasing his friend Winston Churchill.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
His message to Stalin basically is I'm on your side.
I'm not going to doublecross you. Trust me.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
On the third morning of the Tehran Conference, he finally
breaks through.
Speaker 15 (20:49):
I said, lifting my hand to cover a whisper, which,
of course had to be interpreted. Winston is cranky this morning.
He got up on the wrong side of the bed.
Vague smile passed over Stalin's eyes, and I decided I
was on the right track. I began to tease Churchill
about his britishness, about John Bull, about his cigars, about
(21:11):
his habits. Winston got red and scowled, and the more
he did so, the more Stalin smiled. Finally, Stalin broke
into a deep, hearty guffaw, and for the first time
in three days, I saw the light. The ice was broken,
and we talked like men and brothers.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Stalin is always respectful towards Roosevelt, in stark contrast to
the rudeness he sometimes displays towards Churchill and more than respectful.
Here's Susan Butler telling us a story about one night
at the Tehran Conference where Roosevelt struggles to sleep and
what Uncle Joe does to help him with his insomnia.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Stalin had a habit actually of sort of wandering down
into Roosevelt's rooms. So after Stalin asked whether the President
had slept, Rosgas said yes, he said very well, but
he had trouble falling asleep. And so the question is why,
and then and Rosegaw's answer was that the frogs kept
(22:14):
him away. And so of course the next thing had
happened was that all the frogs were killed.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Stalin also seeks revenge against Hitler. Over dinner one night,
he talks of how he wants to treat the Nazi
leadership after the war. Here's what he says. At least
fifty thousand and perhaps one hundred thousand of the German
commanding staff must be physically liquidated.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Must be physically liquidated, They must be shocked.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Churchill protests the British Parliament and public.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
We will never tolerate mass executions.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Stalin fires back.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Perhaps mister Churchill has a secret flight for the Germans.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Roosevelt seeks to defuse the atmosphere.
Speaker 15 (23:02):
I have a compromise to propose.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I put the figure of.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
Germans to be executed at forty nine thousand more.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Everyone laughs, including Stalin. At dinner, Roosevelt seeks to build
a relationship with Stalin. He's seeking a cooperation on a
whole range of different issues, like gaining involvement from the
Soviet Union against Japan. We need to ensure that Germany
con threat in Europe again.
Speaker 10 (23:36):
Then you need to help me.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
And do you need to help me? Now, let's talk
about Japan.
Speaker 10 (23:50):
I will help you with Japan if you help me
with Hitler. There is an Opeland vision. Well, I canna
help you was Japan.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Roosevelt and Churchill are now committed to Stalin's request for
a cross channel attack. American soldiers soon fled into Britain
preparation for the largest amphibious invasion ever attempted. On June sixth,
nineteen forty four, one hundred and fifty thousand Allied troops
pile into thousands of votes and crossed the English Channel
(24:25):
for Normandy, France. The operation that would become known as
D Day is launched. As the Nazis are attacked from
the Russians in the east and the Americans and Brits
in the west, Hitler's empire begins to fall apart.
Speaker 11 (24:43):
The is John mcvain in Paris.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Those bells you can hear are the bells.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Of Notre Dame Cathedral and their ringing chime of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
In November nineteen forty four, Roosevelt is re elected Press
for an unprecedented fourth term. But Roosevelt is keeping a secret.
A year and a half earlier, he is diagnosed with
hypertension in his heart. He knows he has not long
to live. He is a man in a hurry. In
(25:20):
February nineteen forty five, as prospects to end the war
are in sight, Stalin, along with Churchill and Roosevelt, traveled
to Yalta on the Black Sea in the south of
the Soviet Union to attend what would become their second
and most famous meeting of the war. Their agenda the
(25:41):
future of the world. Upon arrival, it is plain to
see that the pressures of war have clearly taken their
toll in President Roosevelt.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And you've been listening to our own Greg Hangler tell
the story of what's been known and tagged by historians
as to deal with the devil, and that's FDR and
Churchill's packed with Joseph Stalin, we learned about that first
meeting of the three men in Tehran, and my goodness,
imagine that these three men. Imagine the security around that event. A.
(26:15):
But B just imagine what that must have been like,
breaking the ice, the jokes, the language barriers.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
All of it.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
And FDR was a master in this regard and endlessly
teased Churchill to grow his bond with Stalin. And then,
of course, not long after nineteen forty five and Yalta,
this is after the D Day invasion, when the fate
of the war, at least in Europe was well it
was in the books almost and that most famous meeting
(26:46):
was about the future of the world and who would
get what after the war was over in Europe. When
we come back the end of this story, the story
of a deal with the devil, here on our American story,
(27:36):
and we continue with our American stories and with the
story of one of the twentieth century's most unlikely alliances
between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.
Let's pick up where we last left off with our
own Greg Hengler.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Here's Hugh lungi, British delegate at the Yalta conference.
Speaker 11 (27:58):
Jacho looked at, sort of very solicitously Churchill, I suppose
had no surprise as I had, and anyone else who
had seen Roosevelt previously, to see this gaunt, very thin figure.
His face was waxen to sort of yellow and waxen
(28:22):
and very drawn, very thin, and a lot of the
time he was sort of sitting sitting there with his
mouth open, sort of staring ahead. So that was quite
a shock to see him in that state. Stalin was
full of beans, he was smiling, He was genial to everybody,
(28:46):
and I mean really everybody, even to junior ranks like myself.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
The meeting crystallizers the Allied resolve that Germany shall be
beaten unconditionally and that lasting peace shall prevail throughout.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But Roosevelt's appearance is deceptive. He has two key objectives
at Yalta. The first is to get Stalin to agree
with a post war United Nations organization. This will be
the practical outcome of Roosevelt's vision of the Great Powers
acting as the world's policeman. Stalin agrees. The second, and
(29:24):
most immediate, is to secure Stalin's entry into the war
with Japan after Germany's defeats. Americans make up the bulk
of the Allied forces who are engaged in the Pacific
in what is known as island hoppying the struggle to
wrest each island from the Japanese. Just eight days after
(29:45):
the ALTA Conference, the Americans have launched one of their
fiercest assaults on the eight mile long island of Iwajima.
The total American casualties in the twenty six day battle,
including the wounded, are over twenty five thousand, more than
the Allies suffer on D Day. Here's US Air Force
(30:07):
bomber pilot Paul Montgomery.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
We were taxing in to iwo Jima and the runways
had just been built. I passed right by a graveyard,
indescribable number of crosses. I couldn't look any longer. It
(30:35):
just took something out of me that I didn't know
was there. I thought I was pretty tough. I wasn't tough.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
What happens on Iwajima is a stark reminder of the
determination of the Japanese to resist at all costs. Of
the twenty one thousand Japanese defenders, twenty thousand died in
the struggle. The Roosevelt is intensely grateful when Stalin promises
(31:04):
the Soviet Union will help America against the Japanese. Once
Germany is defeated, Stalin's Red Army pushes through Germany into
the center of Berlin and begins shelling Hitler's subterranean refuge,
the furo Bunker. Adolf Hitler's empire is reduced from three
(31:28):
million square miles to five hundred square feet. Right when
the victory seems within reach, America's dealt a devastating blow.
That spring in nineteen forty five, President Roosevelt travels to
his small home in Warm Springs, Georgia, his traditional health retreat.
(31:53):
On the twelfth of April, as he poses for a
portrait in his living room, he suffers a stroke and dies.
Stalin is devastated.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
I think Roosevelt was one of the few people in
the world that he looked up to. I mean, I
think he looked up to Roosevelt as much as he
did to Lenin. When Roosevelt died, Stalin put Moscow into mourning.
He ordered all government buildings to fly flags with black
borders around them, and all of the newspapers announcing Roosevelt's
(32:28):
steph the front pages were all bordered in black. I
mean the idea that the head of the communist world
would do this for the head of the capitalist world
is quite quite amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Franklin Roosevelt, who has been the President of America for
twelve years, does not live to see victory over the Nazis.
Just over two weeks later, on the thirtieth of April,
Adolf Hitler, who after World War One vowed never to
(32:59):
see Germany's surrender again, takes his own life, and shortly
afterwards Germany surrenders for the second time in the twentieth century.
For four years, the Red Army has bore the brunt
of Nazi aggression and helping to defeat the Germans, the
(33:19):
Soviets liberate concentration camps like Auschwitz. The human cost for
the Red Army in this war is immense. Twenty seven
million Soviets die. That's almost half the total deaths in
all of World War II. Eleven million are military, sixteen
(33:41):
million are Soviet citizens. American losses four hundred and ten thousand.
The Soviets kill ninety percent a total of four point
seven million Nazi soldiers. American soldiers killed ten percent a
half a millions. The war in Europe comes to a close.
(34:06):
Here's historian H. W. Brands.
Speaker 15 (34:10):
The war ends in Europe and of course for Europeans.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
That's the end of the war for the United States.
Speaker 15 (34:16):
It's not. The United States still has another war to win.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
On July nineteen forty five, the victors gathered just outside
Berlin in Potsdam. The vice president for less than three months,
Harry Truman, sits in Roosevelt's chair. Prime Minister Winston Churchill
is about to unexpectedly be voted out of office. One
(34:43):
man stands Triumphant Stalin, the new emperor of the Soviet
Union and half of Europe. One month later, America and
the Soviet Union sound the death knell of World War
Two over Japan.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
One million Russian troops invaded Manchuria. But that was the
day that we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, and
the specter of the bomb, the second bomb, that was
our second bomb, totally mesmerized the American public, and we
(35:22):
never realized that Russia had invaded Manchuria. It was the
two bombs and the Two Front war, the million Soviet
soldiers that precipitated the surrender.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
A few days later, here's Colin Powell.
Speaker 16 (35:40):
It's easy to criticize Truman's decision to drop the bomb,
but tell that to the Midian mothers who might have
lost their sons.
Speaker 7 (35:49):
War is no fun thing, it's a terrible thing.
Speaker 16 (35:51):
But the fact that those two bombs would drop, I
think guaranteed that we'll never see an atomic bomb again
dropped on anyone. It's existentially not possible. And I know
I was in charge of twenty eight thousand of them.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
The alliance against the Nazis in Japan brings an end
to the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
An ion curtain had attended across the company.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
In the coming months and years, Stalin's triumph will open
the age of two ideologically opposed superpowers in a Cold
war which will last nearly half a century. On Stalin's
seventieth birthday in nineteen forty nine, pictures of the Great
(36:39):
Leader are projected into the sky over Moscow. Is all knowing,
all seen, I is everywhere. After a long speech on
February twenty eighth, nineteen fifty three, Joseph Stalin has a
paralyzing stroke. Over the next few days slowly suffocates to death.
(37:03):
He dies on the morning of March fifth.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, And what a story he told,
And what a price the Soviet Union paid in this war.
Twenty seven million Soviets died, one half of all of
the deaths in World War two, eleven million of them
were military deaths, and almost equally astonishing, the Soviets killed
(37:30):
ninety percent of the Nazi soldiers. Two bombs and one
million Soviet soldiers invading Manchuria compel the Japanese leadership to
surrender something that well, without force like that, Japanese leadership
would have fought to.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The bitter end.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The story of the Deal with the Devil, and that
would be, of course, FDR's deal with Stalin and Churchill
to push back and defeat the Nazis and then the
Japanese and a new war would start, the Cold War
that would last a half century.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Churchill not only.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Predicted it, but lived to see some of it. The
Story of the Deal with the Devil here on our
American Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people the subject of fd Your's relationship with Joseph Stalin
during World War Two is for many observers a puzzle.
How could the leader of the free world and the
face of American capitalism have had a working relationship, let
(00:33):
alone something resembling a friendship with a person who embodied
the complete opposite, a brutal, ruthless, totalitarian dictator who perpetrated
mass atrocities on a scale difficult to quantify. This is
the story of one of the twentieth century's unlikeliest of alliances.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here's greg hanging.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
On March twelve, nineteen thirty eight, Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops
march into Austria and annexed the German speaking nation for
the Third Reich. By March nineteen thirty nine, all of
Czechoslovakia is occupied by the Nazis. Stalin, like the Nazis,
(01:30):
is happy to put ideological differences aside, so in August
nineteen thirty nine, Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pack,
but they were allies in all but name. A difficult relationship.
Considering these two socialist governments, Nazi fascism and Soviet communism
(01:51):
hate each other. Here's Georgie Dreganoff, a member of Stalin's
third Assault Brigade.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Natoshta.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
We were taught to think of the fascists as our enemy,
so to change our personal opinion and understanding that with
the signing of this pact, they were now our friends.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
This, of course, was very difficult nashe.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here's a historian, Robert Glately.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Stalin was determined to give Hitler everything he needed, and.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
Thereby Germany would have no reason ever to attack the
Soviet Union.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Adolf Hitler forms alliances with Italy, Japan, and now the
Soviet Union to create the world's most terrifying superpower. Here's
a historian, Sir Richard Evans.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
Hither came to believe that he was invincible.
Speaker 8 (02:56):
Every time his generals urged caution, he overruled them. He
believed that everything could be done if your will power
was strong enough.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
But less than a year after the non Aggression packs
signed on June twenty fifth, nineteen forty, Hitler's Blitzkrieg with
four million Nazi troops, defeat France in a mere forty
six days after steamrolling through Europe, his empire now nearly
encompasses all of it. Hitler sees the Soviets as subhuman
(03:36):
mud people. Despite the non aggression pack, Hitler thinks the
Soviet Union will fall just as easily as France. He
feels now is the time to do it. In the
early hours of Sunday, the twenty second of June nineteen
forty one, Hitler orders a surprise invasion into the Soviet
(03:58):
Union with more than three million Nazi troops.
Speaker 8 (04:03):
Without warning, Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Nion. It's the
largest land invasion in history.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
In one incredible act of ego, Hitler turns his most
powerful ally against him. Here's Stalin's personal interpreter, Valentine Breshkov.
Speaker 9 (04:28):
And when Molotov came to Stalin's office and told it in,
Stalin just lost his speech. He could not even speak.
He just sat down and was silent for some time,
because here he understood how Hitler practically tricked him, how
he misjudged to the.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Hitler, Stalin's misjudgment is monumental. In a month, German troops
are one hundred miles from Leningrad, Smolensk falls on July
sixteenth and Kiev is overrun in September. At a meeting
of the polit Bureau, Stalin moans all that Lenin created
(05:09):
we have lost. In desperation and at his weakest, Stalin
has to form a surprising new relationship with the Allies.
Speaker 10 (05:19):
Machine guns fifty caliber to defend our cities.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
As early as nineteen forty one, US President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt begins helping Stalin by sending airplanes, tanks, and guns
to the beleaguered Red Army.
Speaker 11 (05:34):
And the Weekend fight for three or four years.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
If Hitler is going to be stopped, the war in
the Soviet Union must be won. In October of forty one,
German newspapers announced to the world that the war is
effectively won. The British aren't doing much to help the Soviets.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill is of two minds. He despises communism,
(05:59):
but he also values anyone who fights against the Nazis.
Just before the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, he says,
if Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a
favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
The British relationship with the Devil is not very effective,
(06:19):
but Stalin knows he needs all the allies he can get,
and he is about to gain a much more powerful one.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
We interrupt this program to bring you a special news Polatouse.
Speaker 12 (06:31):
The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
President Rose Delta just announce.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
On December seventh, nineteen forty one, for the first time
in modern history, America is attacked by a foreign power.
When the Japanese bombed the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor,
over two thousand, four hundred Americans die and nearly the
entire US naval fleet and the Pacific is destroyed.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you've been listening to this story about how America
and the Soviet Union came to be allies in World
War Two, and how Roosevelt and Stalin would soon become
partners as well. The story of this alliance, how it happened,
and what would happen next. The story continues here on
(07:20):
our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of our
American Stories. Every day we set out to tell the
stories of Americans passing present from small towns to big
cities and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things
(07:41):
that we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
our American Stories dot com and make a donation to
keep the stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
And we continue with our American Stories and the story
(08:13):
of how FDR's war packed with Stalin during World War
Two came to be. Let's pick up where we last
left off. Here is our own Greg Pinkler.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Within twenty four hours of the attack, Roosevelt signs a
declaration of war against Japan. Four days later, as part
of their pact with Japan, Adolf Hitler declares war on
the United States and hit.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
The second book, written in on twenty eight but never published,
he made it fairly clear that once he had conquered Europe,
he would turn to America. For the Nazis is never
any end to war, because they believed that a race
on the Germans could only be kept vigorous by continuable
(09:05):
and continual conflict.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Americans rally. Here's John McCain.
Speaker 13 (09:12):
I was a very young boy, I think six years old,
a guy drove up and said to my father Jack.
He said, the Japanese of bomb Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
My father ran.
Speaker 13 (09:23):
Upstairs put some things together, and then next time I
saw him was three years later.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
President Roosevelt is under enormous pressure. No American president has
ever faced the challenge of fighting two wars at the
same time. With the fate of the world hanging in
the balance, Roosevelt and Churchill get to work. These two
men are all that stand in the way of a
(09:52):
world controlled by Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers. It
is time to make a deal with an likely partner.
They have come to the realization that the enemy of
their enemy needs to be their friend. If the Allies
are going to win this war, they need Stalin on
their side, and as it turns out, Stalin needs them more.
(10:17):
And Roosevelt is under no illusion as to the nature
of the Soviet ruler. Here's Susan Butler, author of Roosevelt
and Stalin Portrait of a Partnership.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
He had no illusions about Stalin. He went and thinking
that he was a tyrant, and that he was a dictator,
that he was as bad as any other dictator in
the world, which is what he said.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Culturally and politically, these two men are worlds apart. Roosevelt
is brought up in luxury and educated at Harvard. Stalin,
a cobbler's son, is beaten by his alcoholic father. He
drops out of college to evangelize the cause of his religion, Marxism.
He even mastermind a bank robbery in nineteen oh seven
(11:02):
in order to fill the party Coffers. Born Joseph Jugish Feeley,
he is a man of action who sees himself as
a fighter. In nineteen twelve, he changes his name to Stalin,
which means man of steel. Despite these differences, Churchill and
(11:22):
Roosevelt believe it is possible to persuade the man they
sometimes referred to as Uncle Joe by using the carrot,
not the stick. On December fifteenth, nineteen forty one, Churchill
sends Ambassador Anthony Eden to meet with Stalin at the Kremlin.
It is Stalin who has an idea on how to
(11:44):
best cement the friendship between the two countries. Eden is
shocked that, even with German troops surrounding the Soviet capital
of Moscow, Stalin is thinking so far ahead to the
post war world. Stalin wants an agreement that he will
be able to keep all the territory he's snatched by
(12:05):
acts of aggression and collusion with Hitler prior to nineteen
forty one, including Eastern Poland. When he hears Stalin's proposals,
Churchill rejects them out with In August nineteen forty two,
Hitler sends millions of Nazi troops to converge on an
(12:25):
industrial city so important to Joseph Stalin it bears his name, Stalingrad.
Hitler believes if he can take Stalingrad, he will be
one step closer to global domination. In desperation, Stalin turns
to the United States for help. If YECHISLOVT. Molotov, the
(12:48):
Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs, the second most powerful man
in the Soviet Union, is sent to Washington, d C.
To meet with President Roosevelt. Molotov, like most of Soviet leadership,
is no ordinary politician, but a former revolutionary. Inside his
(13:08):
suitcase the White House valets find some sausages and then
a pistol. Here are the words of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Speaker 14 (13:18):
The sacred serviceman did not like visitors with pistols, but
on this occasion nothing was said, Mister Molotov evidently thought
he might have to defend himself, and also he might
be hungry.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Molotov has made the journey to ask for an immediate
invasion of France in order to take the pressure off
the Red Army in the East, an operation Stalin calls
the Second Front, but just two years later will be
launched as d day before his first meeting with President Roosevelt,
(13:52):
Molotov as a surprise visitor late at night.
Speaker 15 (13:56):
Can I say a few words mister Molotov.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Before the meeting tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It is fifty three year old Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's closest
friend and chief Advisor's considered Roosevelt's eyes, ears, and not
surprisingly feet as well. This use of Hopkins as intermediary
was one of the classic tactics Roosevelt used to manipulate
the Soviets, or, as he called it, to handle them.
(14:25):
Here's George Elsie, the White House Naval intelligence commander and
advisor to President Roosevelt.
Speaker 12 (14:33):
I was a favorite word of Roosevelt's handle people, I
can handle someone. That phrase stuck in my mind and
I kept thinking of it as the war went on.
Roosevelt was always thinking he could handle people, no matter
who or what it was, that he would pull through
as the top dog.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The next morning, Molotov met President Roosevelt. He is careful
to take the advice he received in secret how badly
the war is going, even suggesting how the Nazis might
defeat the Soviet Union in nineteen forty two, which would
reap dire consequences for both the United States and Britain.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
We want very much to open a second front.
Speaker 12 (15:17):
That is a hope, that is our desires.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
There remains the question can it be done.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Roosevelt wants Molotov to go home with good news for Stalin,
which would then encourage the Soviets to keep fighting, But
shortly after Stalin receives further catastrophic news because of setbacks
in Africa and elsewhere, Roosevelt, along with Churchill, tell him
there can be no second front. In nineteen forty two,
(15:48):
Stalin is devastating. Back in America, Stalin is portrayed as
a hero, crowning him as Man of the Year in
nineteen forty two. Time megas Seeing called Stalin a pleasant
host who worked at his desk sixteen to eighteen hours
a day. Here again is George Elsie.
Speaker 12 (16:10):
Well, the American people, the public at large, were quite
unaware of the Soviet purges and of the relocation of
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. It
was necessary for the American leadership, the government, the president
have a sense of realism about the Soviet Union of
the public at It was not really essential for the
(16:31):
public at large to know that.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
Why not, We've got to win the war.
Speaker 12 (16:48):
That's what counted.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And you're listening to our own Greg Hangler tell the
story about how the alliance between the Soviet Union and
the United States came to be.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It wasn't quick and it wasn't easy.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
That initial salvo, that initial conversation in dialogue involved long
ahead of any other chance of even winning the war.
Stalin was negotiating for pieces of Poland and other parts
of Europe.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
After an Allied victory.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Propudiated turned back, but they kept at it. Then the
tragic news comes, at least from the Soviet Union's perspective,
that America and England will not in nineteen forty two
be pursuing a land invasion in France.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Of course, that would be until June sixth of nineteen.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Forty four that that would happen, leaving Stalingrad and the
Soviet Union on that Eastern front on their own. When
we come back, more of the story of the unlikely
alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Here on our American story.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of what many have called the Deal with the Devil
FDRs World War II Pact, and Churchill's two with Joseph Stalin.
Let's pick up where we last left off. Here again
is our own Greg Hangler.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
On the nineteenth of November nineteen forty two, more than
one million Red Army soldiers beat back the Nazis. Meanwhile,
Roosevelt and Churchill open a kind of second front in
North Africa against the Nazis.
Speaker 15 (18:41):
The Yanks already the Doe Boys are spread out for
miles behind every tree and shrub, ready to strike the
enemy or repel infiltration.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But the Western Allies faced tougher opposition from the Nazis
than expected. This puts into jeopardy any plans to invade
France in nineteen forty three, the real second Front. Stalin
so crave. Then, in late November nineteen forty three, one
of the most important meetings of the twentieth century takes
(19:12):
place at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Here,
for the first time, the leaders of the Alliance, Roosevelt, Churchill,
and Stalin, the Big Three, will meet face to face
for four days and for the first time attempt to
win the war and shape the future of the post
(19:34):
war world. Moscow was about to fall to the Nazis,
Stalin is at a low point, and Roosevelt sees an opportunity.
Here again is Susan Butler.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Fdr.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Told April Harriman on his way to Moscow to meet
Stalin to work out Russia's immediate armament. Needs to pressure
Stalin to open the churches. Years later, two months before Terran,
Stalin not only opened all the Russian Orthodox churches and
seminaries throughout the Soviet Union, he freed the three Russian
(20:13):
or patriarchs whom he had put in jail in nineteen
twenty five. The churches remained open throughout Stalin's life.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Roosevelt's tactic is to find a common bond with the paranoid,
suspicious Stalin. He does this by teasing his friend Winston Churchill.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
His message to Stalin basically is I'm on your side.
I'm not going to doublecross you. Trust me.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
On the third morning of the Tehran Conference, he finally
breaks through.
Speaker 15 (20:49):
I said, lifting my hand to cover a whisper, which,
of course had to be interpreted. Winston is cranky this morning.
He got up on the wrong side of the bed.
Vague smile passed over Stalin's eyes, and I decided I
was on the right track. I began to tease Churchill
about his britishness, about John Bull, about his cigars, about
(21:11):
his habits. Winston got red and scowled, and the more
he did so, the more Stalin smiled. Finally, Stalin broke
into a deep, hearty guffaw, and for the first time
in three days, I saw the light. The ice was broken,
and we talked like men and brothers.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Stalin is always respectful towards Roosevelt, in stark contrast to
the rudeness he sometimes displays towards Churchill and more than respectful.
Here's Susan Butler telling us a story about one night
at the Tehran Conference where Roosevelt struggles to sleep and
what Uncle Joe does to help him with his insomnia.
Speaker 6 (21:53):
Stalin had a habit actually of sort of wandering down
into Roosevelt's rooms. So after Stalin asked whether the President
had slept, Rosgas said yes, he said very well, but
he had trouble falling asleep. And so the question is why,
and then and Rosegaw's answer was that the frogs kept
(22:14):
him away. And so of course the next thing had
happened was that all the frogs were killed.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Stalin also seeks revenge against Hitler. Over dinner one night,
he talks of how he wants to treat the Nazi
leadership after the war. Here's what he says. At least
fifty thousand and perhaps one hundred thousand of the German
commanding staff must be physically liquidated.
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Must be physically liquidated, They must be shocked.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Churchill protests the British Parliament and public.
Speaker 7 (22:49):
We will never tolerate mass executions.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Stalin fires back.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Perhaps mister Churchill has a secret flight for the Germans.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Roosevelt seeks to defuse the atmosphere.
Speaker 15 (23:02):
I have a compromise to propose.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I put the figure of.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
Germans to be executed at forty nine thousand more.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Everyone laughs, including Stalin. At dinner, Roosevelt seeks to build
a relationship with Stalin. He's seeking a cooperation on a
whole range of different issues, like gaining involvement from the
Soviet Union against Japan. We need to ensure that Germany
con threat in Europe again.
Speaker 10 (23:36):
Then you need to help me.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
And do you need to help me? Now, let's talk
about Japan.
Speaker 10 (23:50):
I will help you with Japan if you help me
with Hitler. There is an Opeland vision. Well, I canna
help you was Japan.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Roosevelt and Churchill are now committed to Stalin's request for
a cross channel attack. American soldiers soon fled into Britain
preparation for the largest amphibious invasion ever attempted. On June sixth,
nineteen forty four, one hundred and fifty thousand Allied troops
pile into thousands of votes and crossed the English Channel
(24:25):
for Normandy, France. The operation that would become known as
D Day is launched. As the Nazis are attacked from
the Russians in the east and the Americans and Brits
in the west, Hitler's empire begins to fall apart.
Speaker 11 (24:43):
The is John mcvain in Paris.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Those bells you can hear are the bells.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Of Notre Dame Cathedral and their ringing chime of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
In November nineteen forty four, Roosevelt is re elected Press
for an unprecedented fourth term. But Roosevelt is keeping a secret.
A year and a half earlier, he is diagnosed with
hypertension in his heart. He knows he has not long
to live. He is a man in a hurry. In
(25:20):
February nineteen forty five, as prospects to end the war
are in sight, Stalin, along with Churchill and Roosevelt, traveled
to Yalta on the Black Sea in the south of
the Soviet Union to attend what would become their second
and most famous meeting of the war. Their agenda the
(25:41):
future of the world. Upon arrival, it is plain to
see that the pressures of war have clearly taken their
toll in President Roosevelt.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And you've been listening to our own Greg Hangler tell
the story of what's been known and tagged by historians
as to deal with the devil, and that's FDR and
Churchill's packed with Joseph Stalin, we learned about that first
meeting of the three men in Tehran, and my goodness,
imagine that these three men. Imagine the security around that event. A.
(26:15):
But B just imagine what that must have been like,
breaking the ice, the jokes, the language barriers.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
All of it.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
And FDR was a master in this regard and endlessly
teased Churchill to grow his bond with Stalin. And then,
of course, not long after nineteen forty five and Yalta,
this is after the D Day invasion, when the fate
of the war, at least in Europe was well it
was in the books almost and that most famous meeting
(26:46):
was about the future of the world and who would
get what after the war was over in Europe. When
we come back the end of this story, the story
of a deal with the devil, here on our American story,
(27:36):
and we continue with our American stories and with the
story of one of the twentieth century's most unlikely alliances
between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.
Let's pick up where we last left off with our
own Greg Hengler.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Here's Hugh lungi, British delegate at the Yalta conference.
Speaker 11 (27:58):
Jacho looked at, sort of very solicitously Churchill, I suppose
had no surprise as I had, and anyone else who
had seen Roosevelt previously, to see this gaunt, very thin figure.
His face was waxen to sort of yellow and waxen
(28:22):
and very drawn, very thin, and a lot of the
time he was sort of sitting sitting there with his
mouth open, sort of staring ahead. So that was quite
a shock to see him in that state. Stalin was
full of beans, he was smiling, He was genial to everybody,
(28:46):
and I mean really everybody, even to junior ranks like myself.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
The meeting crystallizers the Allied resolve that Germany shall be
beaten unconditionally and that lasting peace shall prevail throughout.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
But Roosevelt's appearance is deceptive. He has two key objectives
at Yalta. The first is to get Stalin to agree
with a post war United Nations organization. This will be
the practical outcome of Roosevelt's vision of the Great Powers
acting as the world's policeman. Stalin agrees. The second, and
(29:24):
most immediate, is to secure Stalin's entry into the war
with Japan after Germany's defeats. Americans make up the bulk
of the Allied forces who are engaged in the Pacific
in what is known as island hoppying the struggle to
wrest each island from the Japanese. Just eight days after
(29:45):
the ALTA Conference, the Americans have launched one of their
fiercest assaults on the eight mile long island of Iwajima.
The total American casualties in the twenty six day battle,
including the wounded, are over twenty five thousand, more than
the Allies suffer on D Day. Here's US Air Force
(30:07):
bomber pilot Paul Montgomery.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
We were taxing in to iwo Jima and the runways
had just been built. I passed right by a graveyard,
indescribable number of crosses. I couldn't look any longer. It
(30:35):
just took something out of me that I didn't know
was there. I thought I was pretty tough. I wasn't tough.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
What happens on Iwajima is a stark reminder of the
determination of the Japanese to resist at all costs. Of
the twenty one thousand Japanese defenders, twenty thousand died in
the struggle. The Roosevelt is intensely grateful when Stalin promises
(31:04):
the Soviet Union will help America against the Japanese. Once
Germany is defeated, Stalin's Red Army pushes through Germany into
the center of Berlin and begins shelling Hitler's subterranean refuge,
the furo Bunker. Adolf Hitler's empire is reduced from three
(31:28):
million square miles to five hundred square feet. Right when
the victory seems within reach, America's dealt a devastating blow.
That spring in nineteen forty five, President Roosevelt travels to
his small home in Warm Springs, Georgia, his traditional health retreat.
(31:53):
On the twelfth of April, as he poses for a
portrait in his living room, he suffers a stroke and dies.
Stalin is devastated.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
I think Roosevelt was one of the few people in
the world that he looked up to. I mean, I
think he looked up to Roosevelt as much as he
did to Lenin. When Roosevelt died, Stalin put Moscow into mourning.
He ordered all government buildings to fly flags with black
borders around them, and all of the newspapers announcing Roosevelt's
(32:28):
steph the front pages were all bordered in black. I
mean the idea that the head of the communist world
would do this for the head of the capitalist world
is quite quite amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Franklin Roosevelt, who has been the President of America for
twelve years, does not live to see victory over the Nazis.
Just over two weeks later, on the thirtieth of April,
Adolf Hitler, who after World War One vowed never to
(32:59):
see Germany's surrender again, takes his own life, and shortly
afterwards Germany surrenders for the second time in the twentieth century.
For four years, the Red Army has bore the brunt
of Nazi aggression and helping to defeat the Germans, the
(33:19):
Soviets liberate concentration camps like Auschwitz. The human cost for
the Red Army in this war is immense. Twenty seven
million Soviets die. That's almost half the total deaths in
all of World War II. Eleven million are military, sixteen
(33:41):
million are Soviet citizens. American losses four hundred and ten thousand.
The Soviets kill ninety percent a total of four point
seven million Nazi soldiers. American soldiers killed ten percent a
half a millions. The war in Europe comes to a close.
(34:06):
Here's historian H. W. Brands.
Speaker 15 (34:10):
The war ends in Europe and of course for Europeans.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
That's the end of the war for the United States.
Speaker 15 (34:16):
It's not. The United States still has another war to win.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
On July nineteen forty five, the victors gathered just outside
Berlin in Potsdam. The vice president for less than three months,
Harry Truman, sits in Roosevelt's chair. Prime Minister Winston Churchill
is about to unexpectedly be voted out of office. One
(34:43):
man stands Triumphant Stalin, the new emperor of the Soviet
Union and half of Europe. One month later, America and
the Soviet Union sound the death knell of World War
Two over Japan.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
One million Russian troops invaded Manchuria. But that was the
day that we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, and
the specter of the bomb, the second bomb, that was
our second bomb, totally mesmerized the American public, and we
(35:22):
never realized that Russia had invaded Manchuria. It was the
two bombs and the Two Front war, the million Soviet
soldiers that precipitated the surrender.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
A few days later, here's Colin Powell.
Speaker 16 (35:40):
It's easy to criticize Truman's decision to drop the bomb,
but tell that to the Midian mothers who might have
lost their sons.
Speaker 7 (35:49):
War is no fun thing, it's a terrible thing.
Speaker 16 (35:51):
But the fact that those two bombs would drop, I
think guaranteed that we'll never see an atomic bomb again
dropped on anyone. It's existentially not possible. And I know
I was in charge of twenty eight thousand of them.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
The alliance against the Nazis in Japan brings an end
to the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
An ion curtain had attended across the company.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
In the coming months and years, Stalin's triumph will open
the age of two ideologically opposed superpowers in a Cold
war which will last nearly half a century. On Stalin's
seventieth birthday in nineteen forty nine, pictures of the Great
(36:39):
Leader are projected into the sky over Moscow. Is all knowing,
all seen, I is everywhere. After a long speech on
February twenty eighth, nineteen fifty three, Joseph Stalin has a
paralyzing stroke. Over the next few days slowly suffocates to death.
(37:03):
He dies on the morning of March fifth.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, And what a story he told,
And what a price the Soviet Union paid in this war.
Twenty seven million Soviets died, one half of all of
the deaths in World War two, eleven million of them
were military deaths, and almost equally astonishing, the Soviets killed
(37:30):
ninety percent of the Nazi soldiers. Two bombs and one
million Soviet soldiers invading Manchuria compel the Japanese leadership to
surrender something that well, without force like that, Japanese leadership
would have fought to.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The bitter end.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The story of the Deal with the Devil, and that
would be, of course, FDR's deal with Stalin and Churchill
to push back and defeat the Nazis and then the
Japanese and a new war would start, the Cold War
that would last a half century.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Churchill not only.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Predicted it, but lived to see some of it. The
Story of the Deal with the Devil here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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