FDR and amazing speech about Stalin

[politicaladdict]

Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech at Yalta.

This one is what it says in my economic and government book.
"I just have a hunch, that Stalin doesn't want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he wouldn't try to annex anything and will work with for a world of democracy and peace."

but this is what alot of other resources said.

"I have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. . . . I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace."

notice how security and is takin out of the picture?

Was this censored or did he actually say that?

Why would such a weak moron do anything like this and give sympathy to a ruthless dictator like Stalin who wanted to obviously annexed everything. I mean, look what happened to Eastern Europe.



Working with a dictator to fight the spread of a tyrannical power is one thing,(We helped Saddam on one side and attacked him later)

But why would FDR say he feels he thinks Stalin might be democratic kind of person and give him everything and nothing in return?

We should learn from this, such as not giving rights to terrorists and showing sympathy to tyrannical countries that are dangerous.

IN OTHER WORDS... DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH TYRANNICAL POWERS!

[Edu]

Wow

[The Mikado]

Yes, and Winston Churchill once referred to Mussolini as, "'the greatest law giver among living men." (1933)  Your point?  We all misjudge character.

As for what happened at Yalta, obviously it was regrettable.  However, the Soviet Union had already overrun most of Eastern Europe.  Making Stalin promise to hold elections in Poland, promise to reunify his half of Germany with the Western, blah blah blah was at least an attempt to make him be honest.  Did Stalin gain more than he should've after the war?  Of course.  Tougher negotiating earlier on might have kept Czechoslovakia and Hungary, at least, in some sort of neutral state like Austria ended up being.  However, can you blame Roosevelt and Truman for not wanting to charge headlong into conflict with their wartime ally over what were essentially the details of the postwar settlement?  Truman did finally establish a line, Greece, Turkey, West Berlin, South Korea, etc...but Soviet intent was much clearer in 1950 than 1945.

[Torie]

Yes, and Winston Churchill once referred to Mussolini as, "'the greatest law giver among living men." (1933)  Your point?  We all misjudge character.

As for what happened at Yalta, obviously it was regrettable.  However, the Soviet Union had already overrun most of Eastern Europe.  Making Stalin promise to hold elections in Poland, promise to reunify his half of Germany with the Western, blah blah blah was at least an attempt to make him be honest.  Did Stalin gain more than he should've after the war?  Of course.  Tougher negotiating earlier on might have kept Czechoslovakia and Hungary, at least, in some sort of neutral state like Austria ended up being.  However, can you blame Roosevelt and Truman for not wanting to charge headlong into conflict with their wartime ally over what were essentially the details of the postwar settlement?  Truman did finally establish a line, Greece, Turkey, West Berlin, South Korea, etc...but Soviet intent was much clearer in 1950 than 1945.

FDR was also at death's door at Yalta, and only marginally sentient. He could have got a better deal, but he just didn't have Stalin's number the way Churchill did. At least that CF had a happy ending, albeit 50 years later, with a couple of generations of Eastern Europeans having to endue misery that I am most fortunate to have never had to endue.

FDR also had a penchant for saying things he didn't really believe for practical purposes, and he needed to arm Stalin to fight Hitler, and so tried to sell him as something other than a sociopathic expansionist killer, only marginally less of a monster than Hitler himself. But we needed the bastard.

[War on Want]

IN OTHER WORDS YOU'RE A DUMBASS

[dead0man]

Everytime I think about how we let the people of Eastern Europe down after the war it depresses me a little more.  One the biggest mistakes the West has ever made.

[JSojourner]

I don't doubt Roosevelt said this...but it does sound like you did some paraphrasing of your own.  Is this verbatim?  Could you please source it?

Thanks very much.

(I do agree FDR pretty much gave away the store.)

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

For God sake!

This was a deadly war against much more vicious and dangerous enemy Hitler and Nazi Germany were. What the hell FDR was suposed to say? "Stalin, you bastard"?

And please give us a source

[War on Want]

I'm sure this guy sucks the dick of Churchill too, which makes this all the more laughable.

[Psychic Octopus]

Provide a source. Although I have always thought FDR gave to much away to the Russians (we should've took Berlin) What the heck was he supposed to do. I'm glad FDR died when he did though, because his post war plans were sickening.

[Badger]

Ah, Yalta. That which sticks in the craw of every true Cold Warrior. Yes, castigate FDR for "giving" the Russians what the Red Army already took, and deeply regret he didn't start WW3 in 45. Classic.

[GMantis]

Everytime I think about how we let the people of Eastern Europe down after the war it depresses me a little more.  One the biggest mistakes the West has ever made.

Somehow I don't think that destroying Eastern Europe a third time would be better.

[dead0man]

There wasn't much left to destroy in 1946, the difference between rubble and re-bombed rubble isn't much.  It would certainly be worth it to the millions that had to suffer and die behind the Iron Curtain.

Look, I know why we didn't and if I was around at the time I probably would have agreed with the reasoning.  But with hindsight, we should have done all we could to keep Eastern Europe free of the brutality of Stalin.  Up to and including war.  I would gladly take a smoldering Moscow to have a free Vilnius.  And I'd gladly take a guerrilla war with the Soviets in the Urals if it means we don't have to do the Berlin Airlift.

[Ban my account ffs!]

There wasn't much left to destroy in 1946, the difference between rubble and re-bombed rubble isn't much.  It would certainly be worth it to the millions that had to suffer and die behind the Iron Curtain.

Look, I know why we didn't and if I was around at the time I probably would have agreed with the reasoning.  But with hindsight, we should have done all we could to keep Eastern Europe free of the brutality of Stalin.  Up to and including war.  I would gladly take a smoldering Moscow to have a free Vilnius.  And I'd gladly take a guerrilla war with the Soviets in the Urals if it means we don't have to do the Berlin Airlift.

In afterthought, it would have been much easier to clean up.. you know.. smaller pieces.  We could simply have graded it and built on top of it.

In all seriousness, I think the speech was dumb but ultimately the best course of action for a world weary of war and conflict.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Everytime I think about how we let the people of Eastern Europe down after the war it depresses me a little more.  One the biggest mistakes the West has ever made.

Somehow I don't think that destroying Eastern Europe a third time would be better.

How the West was suposed to take Eastern Europe back from Stalin hand? Soviet dominance over region was imminent. And still, despite all cruelty of communism system, another war was much more worse option.

[GMantis]

Everytime I think about how we let the people of Eastern Europe down after the war it depresses me a little more.  One the biggest mistakes the West has ever made.

Somehow I don't think that destroying Eastern Europe a third time would be better.

How the West was suposed to take Eastern Europe back from Stalin hand? Soviet dominance over region was imminent. And still, despite all cruelty of communism system, another war was much more worse option.

That's what I meant.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I doubt that Allies would win the war without USSR. Sure Stalin was a vicious dictator and as a Pole I have no reasons to feel a sympathy to him, but Hitler was much worse alternative. And FDR words, if he really said that, were pure politics.

And shall I remind all kind words Reagan said about Pinoched or P.W. Botha? And, funny thing, this was diffrent situation because alliance with these dictators was not really in U.S. interest.

[The Duke]

First, FDR said that because it served the purposes of keeping his alliance together.  There is almost no chance he believed a word of it.  In fact, one of the reasons FDR pushed for an invasion of France as soon as possible was that he feared if the US/UK did not secure France, the Russians would march all the way to the Bay of Biscay and all of Europe would fall under Stalin's dominion.

Further, Yalta merely ratified what had already happenned.  We had no power to dislodge the Russians from Eastern Europe except by force.  To pretend that somehow FDR gave away Eastern Europe is madness.  No one gave it away.  Stalin just took it.

And for conservative Churchill lovers, consider the following: Yalta did not occur until February of 1945, but in October of 1944, Churchill had already cut a secret agreement with Stalin to divide Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.  In this so-called "percentages agreement", Churchill conceded to the USSR 90% control of Romania, 80% control of Bulgaria and Hungary, and 50% control of Yugoslavia.  In exchange, Britain got 90% control of Greece.  Controlling Greece would secure British shipping lines in the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and on to India.  Churchill cut a secret agreement with Josef Stalin that traded away the freedom of several Eastern European countries in exchange for protection of British Imperial interests.  It was not FDR who appeased Stalin over Eastern Europe.  It was Churchill.

[GMantis]

More exactly, Churchill gave up territory which Stalin controled anyway, in exchange of control over Greece, which was disputed at the time.

[Хahar 🤔]

Invading Russia?