If someone said this about 'The Blacks' or 'The Muslims' there'd be outcry. Haven't we learned that we can't make generalisations like this? Some Germans would tell you that there is no real notion of 'Germany' amongst even the Germans themselves, and if you ask them what it means to be German they will give you a variety of answers.. I think that deep, deep down in their souls the germans would definitely like to control Europe. Even the world if that was ok with everyone else. It's in their nature.
If someone said this about 'The Blacks' or 'The Muslims' there'd be outcry. Haven't we learned that we can't make generalisations like this? Some Germans would tell you that there is no real notion of 'Germany' amongst even the Germans themselves, and if you ask them what it means to be German they will give you a variety of answers.
Who was it said "If you don't learn the lessons of history you will be condemned to repeat them?"
One of the things Stalin was looking for at the WWII conference in Tehran in late Nov, early Dec 1943 was a committment from the western allies that they would open up a second front. In fact he was looking for it earlier but he got the commitment at that conference.
Roosevelt gave Stalin that commitment at the conference and it was one of the things he was happiest about going back to Russia.
While I suspect the western allies had the idea of spoiling the soviet plans of expansion in their minds when D-Day was planned it was a very poor second to defeating Nazi Germany. As momentum gathered after the allies broke out of Normandy the race was certainly on between the allies and the soviets to reach Berlin first and gain as much territory as possible.
Indeed there was an internal battle between Patton and Monty to see who could gain more territory but that was more an ego thing rather than any strife between the USA and the UK.
But the fact remains that Stalin was putting a lot of pressure on Roosevelt and Churchill to open up a second front.
Stalin arrived at the Tehran conference just after crushing the Germans at Kursk (the biggest Tank Battle in History). He bullied and dominated Roosevelt, by then a very sick man, while Churchill concentrated on British interests in the Middle East and Mediterranean (despite what his officials advised). Stalin got just about everything he wanted; a chunk of Poland, a puppet government in Yugoslavia and permission to dominate Eastern Europe. Roosevelt was a weak man, mentally as well as physically, but that doesn’t excuse the sell-out of millions of people. If the British and Americans hadn’t opened a second front the whole of Europe would have been under Stalin’s boot. There’s no chance Churchill didn’t know that before he arrived in Tehran (after Kursk).
I agree with all of that but why would Stalin want the western allies to invade Europe if his intention was to take over all of it?
I don't think that Stalin gave two hoots if the western allies invaded or not. In fact it probably would have suited him much better if he was just let alone to get stuck into the germans on his own terms.
John Redwood and the rest of 1922 Club of Tory Backbenchers?
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