--Previous Message--
: You have totally misread my entire post,
: Damian. Yalta was held in February 1945.
: Two months later, Roosevelt was dead.
: Stalin, for one, walked all over both
: Roosevelt and Churchill. For another,
: Churchill tried working behind FDR's back to
: maintain some sphere of influence in the
: Balkans, namely Greece. Churchill wanted to
: have allied troops go to the Balkans, but
: FDR refused.
: However, at Yalta, FDR was not a well man,
: and did not have the ability to prevent what
: would happen. My post was hardly blatant
: American. Have you ever read the FDR/Stalin
: correspondence. There is no doubt that FDR
: thought he could get along with Stalin but
: no one is blaming Churchill for Yalta.
: Churchill was determined to save Greece as I
: stated above. Of course, by the summer of
: 45 Churchill would be out of power ..but
: Truman saw things differently. Oh, no doubt
: there was back-biting from all and everyone
: doing things behind the scenes but this is
: not to diminish that Churchill was a great
: leader ... I am no fan of FDR, by the way.
: FDR had ideas to bring in the Soviets to aid
: in Indian independence, but Churchill would
: not allow this - he described Indians as
: "beastly people with a beastly
: religion."
:
: You said,quote: "The SU had a plan -
: and it wanted a greater sphere of influence
: in Europe and Churchill and Churchill
: (Roosevelt was not a well man) allowed it to
: happen."
:
: Churchill didn't allow ANYTHING to happen.He
: was in no position to do so.Stalin and
: Roosevelt held all the power and all the
: cards at Yalta (and at the other meetings
: between them).Churchill was really only
: there under sufferance and Roosevelt often
: decided to put his trust in Stalin more than
: he did Churchill.Both men wanted to see the
: British Empire dismantled as quickly as
: possible which had always been one of FDR's
: main priorities anyway and Churchill's
: concerns and advice was often dismissed.
:
: I think Churchill was a great leader and PM
: ... I would voted for him in 1945 .. I would
: never have voted for FDR .. or Truman for
: that matter.
:
: Churchill was a great wartime leader,playing
: what few cards he had left to the best of
: his ability.
: But as a peacetime leader he would have been
: a disaster.The British electorate knew
: this.They had memories of him crushing the
: General Strike back in the 1920s and wanting
: to shoot miners and others desperate for a
: better life.A decade of grinding poverty for
: ordinary working people followed.This was
: not forgotten despite Churchill's wartime
: heroics.He was a man from another era and
: the British people wanted a government who
: would improve their standard of living and
: not waste resources trying to defend a dying
: empire.I would have felt the same.
:
: Ironically,I'm the reverse again because I
: think I would have supported Roosevelt if I
: were an American.I think he did great things
: to turn the country around after the great
: Depression of the 1930s.Americans must have
: thought so as they elected him president for
: an unprecedented three times.In fact I wish
: we'd had someone like him around at that
: time and possibly the Germans too.It might
: have saved them from turning to Hitler.
:
:
:
: