Organizing Victory by Andrew Rawson

Author:Andrew Rawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752494036
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

1 December: Third Roosevelt–Stalin Meeting

Roosevelt wanted to discuss a brief matter relating to internal American politics with Stalin. America had an election in 1944 and while he personally did not wish to run again, he might have to if the war was still in progress.151 There were six to seven million Americans of Polish extraction in the United States, and as a practical man, he did not wish to lose their vote. He personally agreed with Stalin’s views about restoring the Polish state but wanted to see the Eastern border moved farther to the west and the Western border moved even to the River Oder. He hoped Stalin understood he could not participate in any decision in Tehran or even next winter on this subject for the political reasons outlined above and he could not publicly take part in any such arrangement at the present time. Stalin understood.

Roosevelt said there were Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians, in that order, in the United States. He fully realized the three Baltic Republics had in history, and again more recently, been a part of Russia and jokingly added when the Soviet armies reoccupied these areas, he did not intend to go to war with the Soviet Union on this point.

Roosevelt said the big issue in the United States, insofar as public opinion went, would be the question of referenda and the right of self-determination. He thought world opinion would want some expression of the will of the people, perhaps not immediately after their reoccupation by Soviet forces, but some day, and he was personally confident the people would vote to join the Soviet Union.

Stalin replied the three Baltic Republics had no autonomy under the last Czar, an ally of Great Britain and the United States, and no one had raised the question of public opinion then and he did not quite see why it was being raised now. Roosevelt said the truth of the matter was the public neither knew nor understood. Stalin answered they should be informed and some propaganda work should be done. As for the expression of the will of the people, there would be lots of opportunities for that to be done in accordance with the Soviet constitution but he could not agree to any form of international control. Roosevelt replied it would be helpful for him personally if some public declaration could be made with regard to the future elections to which the Marshal had referred. Stalin repeated there would be plenty of opportunities for such an expression of the will of the people.

Roosevelt said there were only two matters which the three of them had not talked over. He had already outlined his ideas on the three world organisations but he felt it was premature to consider them here with Churchill. He referred particularly to his idea of the four great nations, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, policing the world in the post-war period. He said it was just an idea, and the exact form would require further study.

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