The division of Europe between East and West, born during World
War II, not only denied independence to more than 100 million East
Europeans, but upset the balance of global power, putting Stalin in
a position to threaten Western Europe and planting the seeds of the
Cold War and the arms race. This book probes the questions and
facts surrounding the division of Europe and offers new insight
into how it might have been prevented. Looking beyond the
conventional assumption that Stalin simply took over Eastern Europe
in the postwar years, Remi Nadeau demonstrates how the Soviet
leader, having gained power in Eastern Europe through Red Army
occupation, was unrestrained by any prior Allied agreements. The
Sovietization of Eastern Europe, which is commonly believed to have
occurred in the immediate postwar years, actually came about during
the war as the Allies failed to limit Stalin. Nadeau shows how the
British, who recognized the Soviet threat, repeatedly tried to
block it and how Roosevelt, with a different foreign policy
approach, did not support them. But, as the author states in his
preface, this is not a story of American wrongdoing, but of
American innocence.
Well researched and thorough in its arguments, this book
demonstrates how Roosevelt's failure to throw U.S. strength into
the political balance was not confined to the Yalta Conference in
1945, but was a consistent U.S. policy in East-West encounters
throughout the war. Nadeau shows that Roosevelt did not understand
Stalin's intentions and repeatedly failed to support Churchill's
attempts to block Stalin with diplomatic bargaining and military
preemption. Written in a highly readable style and full of
little-known historical detail, this book will appeal to any
student of World War II, Eastern Europe, or European history.
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