history lesson - What Bush got wrong about Yalta.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Use this to stop this RW slander of FDR and his legacy...

Know Thy Allies
What Bush got wrong about Yalta.
By David Greenberg
Tuesday, May 10, 2005


After World War I, the political right in Germany developed a myth called the "stab in the back" theory to explain its people's defeat. Though military leaders had helped negotiate the war's end, they fixed blame on civilian leaders—especially Jews, socialists, and liberals—for "betraying" the brave German fighting men. This nasty piece of propaganda was later picked up by Hitler and the Nazis to stoke the populist resentment that fueled their rise to power.

snip>

Bush stopped short of accusing Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill of outright perfidy, but his words recalled those of hardcore FDR- and Truman-haters circa 1945. "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable. Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable. The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history."

Bush's cavalier invocations of history for political purposes are not surprising. But for an American president to dredge up ugly old canards about Yalta stretches the boundaries of decency and should draw reprimands (and not only from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.).

more...
http://www.slate.com/id/2118394/

[democracyindanger]

1. Everytime some winger brings up Yalta

show this picture

[tucoramirez2005]

2. Was Yalta justifiable?

I don't see how one could make the case that it was.

It was very much along the lines of the earlier agreements referenced.

I thought it was odd (and unprofessional) for a president to say that about a former president publicly, even if the statement is correct.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Maybe not justifiable...

But was FDR a stooge of the "Commies?"

I think this is more likely...

"Because FDR kept many details of the Yalta agreements under wraps, people in Washington began whispering conspiratorially about "secret agreements." Soon, critics, especially on the far right, were charging that FDR and Churchill had sold out the people of Eastern Europe—charges that Bush's recent comments echo. They asserted that the ailing Roosevelt—he would die only weeks later—had come under the malign influence of pro-Communist advisers who gave Stalin the store. "



quotes are good <edit>

[dsc]

6. In a perfect world, maybe

but in the world FDR had, quite a different story. Our military had fought for four straight years and the Soviets had both a bigger military and better equipment. They also had the advantage of actually having the land that we would have been fighting over. I fail to see how he could have possibly kept the Soviets from keeping Eastern Europe.

[newyawker99]

10. Hi tucoramirez2005!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Redleg]

3. Bush doesn't know jack shit about Yalta or anything else.

He is just parroting words other have told him to say. And he is a big fucking hypocrite to boot.

[Inland]

4. Somebody actually freed a continent and won a war--and Bush hates him

for it, and safely criticizes from fifty years away. What a dick.

[R. A. Fuqua]

7. hindsight is 20-20.

Both Roosevelt and Churchill (another GREAT leader) did not predict how evil Stalin would be. (I guess they didn't have their crystal balls or magic 8 balls or whatever)

I think they both thought that they could work with Stalin. They did misjudge his character. But--at the time--knowing what they knew (not knowing what we know now) how many of us would have made the same mistake?

Interestingly enough, Truman was NOT fooled by Stalin--he did not trust him at all.

[chartresbleu]

8. trying to blacken the name of the man who brought us social security?

you may remember when the bush folks first started their attempt to destroy social security, that one of them, can't remember who now, took fdr's words completely out of context and tried to make it seem like he would have been for the bush plan. it didn't take long for them to realize that no one was buying it and the whole idea was stupid and mean spirited, as is most of what they do. so perhaps this is their new attempt to deal with the enduring legend of fdr: take the deals made at the end of the war out of context and use that try to paint him as incompetent and corrupt. bush is so obsessed with winning this battle of his that no lie or smear campaign would be too evil to be used if it helps him win.

[Cleita]

9. History in Bush's mind are the fits that

Laura has when she runs out of her pills. Oh, that's histrionics isn't it? However, he doesn't know.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. last paragraph...

"Along with the myth of FDR's treachery in leading America into war, the "stab in the back" interpretation of Yalta became a cudgel with which the old right and their McCarthyite heirs tried to discredit a president they had long despised. Renouncing Yalta even became a plank in the 1952 Republican platform, although Eisenhower did not support it. In time, however, these hoary myths receded into the shadows, dimly remembered except as a historical curiosity, where, alas, they should have remained undisturbed."