With all the current talk about Russia it might be worthwhile to think about the closing days of WWII. In February of 1945 there was a conference at Yalta in Crimea between Josef Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to discuss the post war reconstruction of Germany and Europe. At the time Soviet forces, which were three times the size of the Western Allies, were 40 miles from Berlin and the Western forces were crossing the western boundary of Germany many hundreds of miles from Berlin. Russia demanded the right to drive on to Berlin and occupy Eastern Europe and the Western forces were to stop at the Elbe River. In return, Russia agreed to join the war against Japan whose invasion was expected to create a million casualties.
To cover the last 40 miles and occupy Berlin, Russia suffered as many casualties as the U.S. had for the entire war. This was in line with Russian war strategy going back to Tsarist times of we’ve got more soldiers for you to kill than you’ve got bullets, they are just a statistic. Russia was willing to pay in blood to dominate other nations.
Later when he was running in the GOP primaries for President in 1952 the Taft forces attacked him for not crossing the Elbe and speeding on to Berlin. Eisenhower responded that the mission already agreed upon was accomplished and he was not going to throw away soldiers lives for real estate that would have to be given back.
Mamie Eisenhower famously said that she loved waking up in the morning in the White House and rubbing Ike’s old bald head because it made her feel safe. Based on the elections in the fifties, America felt the same way.
