Roosevelt's Road to Russia

by George N. Crocker

Release Date: November, 1986

Edition: Hardcover

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The Biggest Surprise Since the Cubs Missed the Pennant

This excellent exposition of FDR's relations with the Soviet Union makes us think... of the obvious. We think of Saddam defying the civilized world, we think of North Vietnam using the Kissinger treaty to overrun the south, we think of Anna Nicole with a case of Nesquick--Franklin would certainly try to charm Stalin and he would lose. That America tried to shmooz the communists instead of confront them certanly prolonged the cold war. If Frankin had not thought he could grin the reds into an decent deal, millions would have been free sooner. Crocker gives us Roosevelt's idiotic attempt at such idiocy a full hearing, and finds him a jackass.

FDR is the Most Traitorous President in American History

This book demonstrates to anyone not snookered by the FDR myth that: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the most traitorous President America has ever had. He was completely negligent in the manner in which he conducted the War. And the monumentally tragic decisions he made with respect to post-War Europe and Asia are simply unforgivable.

As a pure politician, Roosevelt was out of his league in dealing with Stalin, notwithstanding his assertion to Winston Churchill that:

"I know you will not mind my being brutally frank when I tell you that I think I can personally handle Stalin better than either your Foreign Office or my State Department."

Someone should have questioned the man's competence when he uttered the words:

"I have just 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 won't try to annex anything and will work for a world democracy and peace."

Stalin had already annexed half of Poland and all of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia when Roosevelt made that remark!

With the partitioning (and millions of lives) of Eastern Europe at stake, this man was acting on a "hunch?" Anyone who knew anything about Communism would have known that FDR's hope of appeasing Stalin was wishful thinking. Of course, none of his "learned" advisors (Harry Hopkins, Alger Hiss, etc.) said anything because it would turn out that they were Communist sympathizers.

But that doesn't excuse Roosevelt who should have been informed on who and what he was dealing with. After all, there were ample voices outside of government telling the administration that it was playing with fire by cuddling up with Uncle Joe Stalin. But Roosevelt just turned these voices off by labeling them "Nazi" or "pro-fascist."

The Bolshevik Revolutionary himself (Lenin) had said years before:

"We are living not merely in a state, but in a system of states; and it is inconceivable that the Soviet republic should continue to exist for a long period side by side with imperialist states [e.g. America, Britain]. Ultimately one or the other must conquer. Meanwhile a number of terrible clashes between the Soviet republic and the bourgeois states are inevitable."

Exactly what part of this did Roosevelt not understand?

Additionally, assessments from one of FDR's military advisors stated:

"Russia's post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces. It is true that Great Britain is building up a position in the Mediterranean vis-�-vis Russia that she may find useful in balancing power in Europe. However, even here she may not be able to oppose Russia unless she is otherwise supported."

That FDR was mesmerized by Uncle Joe and wanted to keep him happy is beside the point. As the most powerful man in the world with the greatest military force behind him, why did Roosevelt ignore the Communist threat? Why was he giving Stalin so much with so few conditions?

In fact, Roosevelt seemed to go out of his way to assist Stalin, giving him things without a request from the Soviet dictator and even in his absence! Roosevelt apparently thought he was exercising wise foreign policy when he stated:

"Of course, it's just the thing for the Russians. They couldn't want anything better. Unconditional surrender [of Germany and Japan]. Uncle Joe might have made it up himself!"

And in stating the following, it wasn't the first time that FDR would make Churchill part of his act in cozying up with Uncle Joe:

"Trouble is, the Prime Minister is thinking too much of the post-war, and where England will be. He's scared of letting the Russians get too strong."

That Roosevelt was good at schmoozing with other politicians is beyond doubt. However, in making the above statement, he showed his utter incompetence in dealing with Russia effectively and realistically. If FDR had understood the Russian threat even half as well as Churchill did, the ensuing enslavement of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain would have been averted.

As a learned man of history, Churchill understood the threat of a Russia occupying Eastern Europe. Consequently, he had been promoting a plan for an allied invasion through the Balkans in order to occupy Eastern Europe. At the time Churchill made his proposal, Germany was still on Russian soil. An attack up through the Balkans would have enabled American, English and French forces to occupy Eastern Europe before Russia:

"The paramount task before us is, first, to conquer the African shores of the Mediterranean and set up the naval and air installations which are necessary to open an effective passage through it for military traffic; and, secondly, using the bases on the African shore to strike at the under-belly of the Axis [Balkans] in effective strength and in the shortest time."

However, it was not to be. Stalin didn't like the plan. Consequently, Roosevelt did not like the plan. As America's General Clark would later comment:

"A campaign that might have changed the whole history of relations between the Western world and the Soviet Union was permitted to fade away ... Not alone in my opinion, but in the opinion of a number of experts who were close to the problem, the weakening of the campaign in Italy in order to invade Southern France, instead of pushing into the Balkans, was one of the outstanding mistakes of the War ... Stalin knew exactly what he wanted ... and the thing he wanted was to keep us out of the Balkans ... It is easy to see, therefore, why Stalin favored ANVIL [Normandy Invasion]."

May Truth be redeemed and this man (FDR) dethroned from his mythic throne in the annals of history.