Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
Truman Takes Office After Roosevelt's Death · Acedra
Home
Explore
History
Truman Takes Office After Roosevelt's Death
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
530 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:06
Friday April 13, 1945, America is petrified.
0:16
Franklin Roosevelt, the president of the United States, has just died while the Second World War is still not finished.
0:31
Roosevelt was the great peacemaker.
0:35
More than anyone else, he embodied the hope of seeing rebuild the world on better grounds.
0:48
As the crowd watches in silence pass the funeral procession,
0:53
the whole planet a question arises.
0:56
Without Roosevelt, Westerners and Soviets will they manage to get along? And to build lasting peace?
1:19
April 12, 1945, Washington, at the White House.
1:26
Three hours after Roosevelt's death, Harry Truman becomes the new president of the United States. He enters the scene in a world in chaos.
1:41
In this month of April 1945, America is still at war against Hitler and against the Japanese.
1:54
To make nothing simpler, It's barely been three months since Truman is vice president.
2:00
And nothing predestined him really to become the new president of the United States.
2:12
He is a former salesman of Missouri shirts and ties.
2:16
He launched in politics late and was elected senator for the the first time ten years ago.
2:24
If Roosevelt chose him as vice-president, It’s not for his skills.
2:30
He took it for considerations totally electoral, while thinking he was rubbish, which is done a lot in the United States. When we choose the vice president, it is not necessarily for his intelligence, because it's often him who will bring votes places we need.
2:47
In the space of a day, the old Missouri trader therefore finds himself propelled to the head of the world's leading power. He himself is stunned and doesn't hide it. On the front page of the press, journalists tell what Truman entrusted to them.
3:05
Guys, if you pray, pray for me. I don't know if a boot hay has already fallen on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I had the impression that the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.
3:22
Still, the grandson of President Truman, remembers that his grandfather never tried to pretend to be the man for the job.
3:34
He wasn't prepared for all this. He said "there must be a million people more qualified than me to perform this function. It fell on me, so I will do everything what it takes to be up to the task." He was the kind of man who we were given a job and who did it.
3:55
The task promises to be tough. We must rebuild the world of tomorrow and give it solid foundations. But Truman has no knowledge of international politics.
4:12
During the three months of his vice-presidency, Roosevelt never met him only twice face to face. Truman was not informed of anything.
4:24
I think my grandfather was wrong not to integrate it a little more.
4:30
He was perfectly aware of the degradation of his strength, but I think that he didn't have enough energy anymore to associate Truman with his decisions and pass the baton.
4:46
Two months before dying, Roosevelt had met Stalin and Churchill at Yalta. It is there, in Crimea, that the big three had laid the foundations for future peace. The sealed agreements were complex and full of ambiguities. Each of the allies having played his own game.
5:06
From all these discussions, Truman was kept out. It needs to update on all files.
5:15
He's a pragmatist and a hard worker. So he continues briefings with his advisors.
5:22
Will this hard work be enough? The little tie merchant from Missouri will he manage to do the weight in the face of the formidable Stalin?
5:41
One month after arrival of Truman at the head of the White House, the Allies win the war in Europe.
5:53
Across the continent, the people exult.
6:02
In London, in front of Buckingham Palace, a human tide came to cheer Winston Churchill.
6:10
The British Prime Minister is celebrated as a hero.
6:14
Yet despite this moment of euphoria, Churchill looks drawn.
6:20
The smile on his lips has something forced about it.
6:24
In his memoirs he writes: Weary, exhausted, impoverished but still fearless and now triumphant. We knew a moment that touched the sublime. Yet, few hearts were to be more consumed with worry than mine.
6:40
What can there be so serious to hold such a moment?
6:45
The problem for Churchill his name is Stalin. Now that the war is won in Europe, the Briton is convinced that Stalin will take advantage of it to establish communist regimes wherever he can.
7:01
Already, unlike to the commitments made at Yalta, the Soviet leader installed a communist regime in Romania. Poland, six non-communist ministers have entered the government, but they have every day a little less power.
7:17
Stalin wanted all of Europe becomes communist. It was by ideology, but it was also because it was a man with the mentality of an emperor, a dictator with the mentality of an emperor.
7:32
The British Prime Minister then tries to warn Truman. The brand new American president doesn't want to know anything.
7:41
For now, Truman set his sights to respect the commitments made by Roosevelt. He is not willing to hear anything against its communist ally.
7:53
Churchill can only hope for Truman to open his eyes for himself.
7:59
The opportunity will soon be given to him.
8:13
July 16, 1945, Berlin airport. The American President's plane has just landed.
8:23
Truman goes to Europe to participate in a peace conference.
8:28
On this occasion, he will finally meet his allies and make up your own mind about them.
8:37
The discussions must take place in Potsdam, a few kilometers from Berlin.
8:49
To get there, Truman crosses the former capital of the Reich.
8:56
Berlin is nothing more than a field of ruins.
9:04
Only a few passers-by wander, haggard.
9:12
This spectacle of desolation upsets Truman and will push him to want to help Germany to get back up.
9:21
That evening, in his diary, he wrote: I had never seen a show more distressing nor more distressing. We saw old men, old women, young women leading away to nowhere what they could and what remained of their property.
9:41
The conference opens the next day, July 17.
9:48
Here at Cecilienhof Palace, this is the only time when Stalin, Truman and Churchill will all meet together.
10:00
As Truman expected, Churchill seems charming.
10:06
As for Stalin, his advisors never stop talking to him repeat that we can trust him. However, very quickly, the new president takes the measure of the man with whom he will have to negotiate.
10:19
I can deal with Stalin. He is honest but smart as the devil.
10:26
For his part, Stalin, has no suspicion of Truman. For him, he remains a small shopkeeper from Missouri.
10:36
Stalin has little information about him because, as he played no role, his spies didn't really talk to him about him and what told him about it had let him predict that it was someone not important, of slack and that we were going to be able make him accept anything. Now, when Truman says no, it means no.
10:58
Because against all odds, despite his little experience, the American president knows how to be firm.
11:05
It is in no way impressed by Stalin. Question of character no doubt, but not only.
11:13
Truman feels in a position of strength
11:16
because he is waiting for information who could make him the most powerful man on the planet.
11:22
At the same time, in the United States, an event top secret is in preparation. As he negotiates, the American president impatiently awaiting news.
11:36
On the second day of negotiations, Finally, he receives a telegram in coded language.
11:43
The doctor comes to come back enthusiastic and confident on the fact that the little boy is as strong as his big brother. The light in his eyes is visible from here to High Hold and I could have heard her screams from here to my farm.
12:06
This little boy in question, Little Boy is the atomic bomb.
12:16
Since four years, in the greatest secrecy, the best scientists on the planet, are working to develop which seems to be the absolute weapon. Operation code name: Trinity.
12:32
The first atomic test of the story is a total success. The power of the explosion is equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT.
12:41
Never such power devastation has not been achieved.
12:45
Only one weapon now has the power to annihilate all of humanity.
12:52
After some hesitation, Truman ends up warning Stalin.
12:59
This is bad news, of course. This means that from now on, Soviet Union will find themselves in a situation of inferiority. Everyone was watching Stalin's reaction. And Stalin, who is a very good actor, says: “oh well, you have a powerful bomb?” "I congratulate you and I hope that you will use it against Japan.”
13:22
Stalin Was he really in the dark?
13:28
Despite protective measures drastic measures taken by the Americans, the Russians managed to introduce spies on the Los Alamos base where the atomic bomb was made.
13:40
Among them, Klaus Fuchs. This German physicist fled Nazism. Fuchs is also a spy in the pay of the Soviets, because he is a convinced communist.
13:54
For two years, the scientist delivers to the Russians all the plans for the American bomb. With this information, the Soviets began to develop their own nuclear weapon.
14:08
Despite this, on July 24, when Stalin learns that the bomb American is now ready, he gets nervous. Stalin hates nothing as much as feeling vulnerable.
14:24
He summoned the people who were in Potsdam,
14:29
and he asked to transmit to scientists and to all those who worked on the atomic project, that he wanted us to speed up as much as possible creation of the Soviet atomic bomb.
14:47
This bomb will become an obsession with Stalin. As long as he doesn't have its own atomic weapon, the generalissimo will not feel confident in the face of the Americans. Relations with Truman will then start to seize up.
15:05
Potsdam will also be the scene of another explosion.
15:11
In the middle of the conference, Churchill leaves the negotiating table to go to London where he must wait for the election results.
15:20
As a convinced democrat, the British Prime Minister put his mandate back on the line.
15:26
Since weeks, while he is in the countryside, he is acclaimed throughout England.
15:32
But on election morning, at dawn, the Briton has a bad feeling. I suddenly woke up as if someone stabbed me with a dagger knife and I felt almost physical pain. The power to shape the future would be denied to me.
15:48
Churchill's intuition was correct. To everyone's amazement, he is not re-elected.
15:56
To the war hero, the British prefer a new man. Labor leader Clement Attlee.
16:04
The day after his victory, Attlee slides into the chair, still hot, from Churchill.
16:10
Around the table, everyone feels like a casting error.
16:15
Clement Attlee is someone which seems really insignificant. Churchill said “a sheep in sheep’s clothing.” Or an empty car stops outside Downing Street and Major Attlee gets out. A modest man and who has good reasons to be so etc.
16:35
And there, Stalin is totally baffled because he was convinced that Churchill had done everything it took to rig the elections. Because for Stalin, that's what every politician does who is worthy of his position.
16:52
Facing an Attlee a little lost and a little awkward, Stalin takes matters into his own hands. He is the last of the three giants of Yalta.
17:01
Now, with Attlee, Britain is on the sidelines. The world only counts two superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union. Truman and Stalin meet face to face.
17:17
Very quickly, the disagreements that exist between the two men will harden and transform in real oppositions.
17:32
Five days after Potsdam, Truman makes a decision which will have serious consequences. The United States will use the atomic bomb against Japan. The tension with Stalin will immediately go up a notch.
17:56
August 6, 1945, in the early hours of the morning, the American bomber Enola Gay flies towards the Japanese archipelago.
18:09
At 8:15 a.m., Little Boy is dropped on Hiroshima.
18:21
A gigantic mushroom atomic rises above the city. Temperature on the ground reaches 4,000 degrees. 70,000 people were killed instantly.
18:32
The city is nothing more than desert of ashes and dust.
18:48
Three days later, August 9, it's Nagasaki's turn to be bombed.
18:56
The whole world is in shock.
19:01
For Stalin, the atomic bomb is a provocation. He is convinced that Truman trying to impress him. He doesn't understand that America dropped its bombs while on August 8, as she had promised, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan alongside the United States.
19:22
For us, the message sent by the United States was clearly that the use of the atomic bomb against Japan was not intended to win a quick victory against the Japanese, but to scare the Soviet Union in order to be able to dictate American conditions.
19:42
Clearly, Truman wanted end the war as quickly as possible and save American lives.
19:48
But it is also clearly a message sent to Stalin. Because Truman intends to let him know that now he is the master of the game.
20:02
Since then, Stalin wants to know by what margin of maneuver he has in front of Truman, so he will test it.
20:10
In Yalta, Stalin was promised territories in exchange of his entry into war against Japan.
20:17
Sakhalin Island, the Kuriles, Irene and Port Arthur, and a railway line in Manchuria. But Stalin now demands, in addition, to occupy the island of Hokkaido.
20:30
In a telegram sent to Truman, the generalissimo explains. "Russian public opinion would appreciate if our troops " "receive an area of occupancy in part of the archipelago. “She would be seriously offended otherwise ". "I hope that my modest requests will be satisfied. Then he changes his mind and adds handwritten. “Will not encounter any objection.”
20:55
The American president is ulcerated. His answer is straightforward.
21:01
It's no. And that's all.
21:06
Grandfather was waiting for people let them be upright and honest. He was like that and waited in return that people be loyal and frank with him. When he discovered that this was not the case and that Stalin tried to take advantage of him, he started to negotiate with him in a much harsher way.
21:27
Stalin also decided to move up a gear.
21:32
He will push his advantage in Europe. Rigged elections, power grabs. Wherever he can, Stalin imposes communist regimes. Poland Czechoslovakia Hungary and Bulgaria are about to fall in Soviet hands.
21:52
This creeping Stalinization of Europe worries Truman. But the American president is still hesitant about what to do.
22:05
The telegram that lands on his desk February 22, 1946, will change everything. His author, George Kennan,
22:14
a simple diplomat then stationed in Moscow.
22:18
Kennan had time to observe the functioning of Stalin.
22:22
He understood that he wanted take over Eastern Europe and he is convinced that the only way to stop it is to show firmness. In a long telegram sent to Washington, he describes the mode of Soviet operation.
22:38
The Kremlin has a neurotic attitude with regard to world affairs, which comes from his Russian instinct of permanent insecurity. Russians are impervious to the logic of reason and very sensitive to the logic of force. Kennan explains that he is useless to seek to reassure Stalin Anyway, Stalin cannot be reassured, does not want to be reassured since this allows him to justify the dictatorship. But on the other hand, let's be firm against Stalin
23:07
because he understands the balance of power and as soon as the Westerners are firm, Stalin is ready to step down. Kennan's analysis confirms everything that was anticipated intuitively the American president. From then on, the change of direction is complete. Truman splits former Roosevelt advisors, considered too soft with regard to of the Soviet Union, and promotes new men. In the process, Kennan is called to the White House as special advisor.
23:40
There remains one difficulty for Truman, make public opinion understand American this turnaround. The operation promises to be delicate because in the eyes of the Americans, Stalin is the great ally.
23:55
The one who allowed to win the war against Hitler. The press never stopped to present him as a hero.
24:04
They suffered four years war propaganda who shows them Stalin like the friend of little children and America's best ally thanks to which we will win the war. This propaganda succeeded perfectly. Stalin is also very popular in the United States.
24:26
The American president then had an idea. He will use from the former British Prime Minister and let him announce himself the bad news. Churchill enjoys of considerable prestige. No one will dare doubt his word.
24:46
And then, former British Prime Minister will surely be delighted to come to the United States. Since his defeat in the elections, he is going through a period of deep depression.
25:06
This March 5, 1946, the whole little town from Fulton, Missouri, took out the flags to welcome the former Prime Minister.
25:15
The sun is shining brightly. Truman, who welcomes Churchill to his stronghold, is all smiles. The American president knows that the British is about to drop a bomb, but it will keep well to say that he knew about it.
25:30
A few minutes later, at Fulton University, Churchill gives a speech which will paralyze the audience and shake the whole world.
25:41
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has fallen on the continent. The speech of the Iron Curtain causes an outcry The Americans are shocked. Stalin, their great friend. It was strategically quite clever on Truman's part to let Churchill speak and use this expression of iron curtain, because it showed also to American opinion and to world opinion that this turnaround of American politics Wasn't just Truman's doing or a few isolated advisors,
26:22
but only a personality as important as Churchill was going in the direction of the American president.
26:31
Soon, Americans who admired Stalin will consider it like a dangerous tyrant.
26:40
In the USSR, Fulton's speech pass for a moment a stab in the back. Stalin is furious. Intellectuals and those close to the Kremlin are headstrong against Churchill.
26:56
Churchill was the enemy sworn member of our country.
27:00
He was the greatest leader anti-Soviet in the West of the world.
27:06
He spent his whole life doing bad blows to the Soviet Union.
27:15
From now on, European countries are forced to choose their side, that of communism or capitalism. In this race to share the world, Stalin is one step ahead. He has already got his hands on Eastern European countries and is gaining ground in the West.
27:33
In France and Italy, communist ministers entered the government. How far will Stalin extend its sphere of influence? Revolutionary France in 1792.
27:50
The question haunts Truman and the American president understood that in this standoff which pits him against the Soviets, he had an adversary against him of weight which is poverty.
28:07
Nearly two years after the end of The Second World War, Europe has still not recovered. The Old Continent is on the verge of chaos. Truman is perfectly aware that this misery creates the basis for communism. But before acting, he needs to have a clear view of the situation.
28:27
At the beginning of 1947, Truman dispatches in Europe Mike Mansfield. This senator from Montana is tasked with assessing the situation. His report is frightening.
28:39
In all the countries visited, there are obvious cases of malnutrition, tuberculosis and diseases.
28:47
In Italy, the majority of the population remains thanks to daily rations of bread ranging from 75 to 125 grams.
28:56
She barely eats anything else.
29:00
After reading this report, Truman becomes convinced. If he does not come to the aid of the Europeans, he will leave the field open to Stalin on the continent. Truman then decides of a rescue plan for Europe entrusted to General George Marshall, the new American Secretary of State.
29:21
Raw materials, machine tools, tons of material are transported on the other side of the Atlantic.
29:29
Behind its generous appearance, the Marshall plan is also vital for the United States, who need to revive their economy.
29:38
It was also a way to restore vigor to American trade. Because you can't to be rich all alone in the world, you must have partners who are rich. Therefore, if the United States, who had profited from the war, could not trade with other countries because other countries could not afford to buy, that meant that the wealth of the United States would decline.
30:08
The Marshall Plan is also a weapon policy intended to destabilize Stalin, because American aid is offered to all European countries, including Eastern countries.
30:22
And of course, the Eastern countries which are under the tutelage of the Soviet Union also need it a lot. Czechoslovakia, Poland, to whom the Marshall Plan is proposed.
30:34
But what will win? It’s ideological distrust. The Marshall Plan was perceived like the plan enslavement of Western Europe by the American imperialists.
30:46
All this was unacceptable to Stalin.
30:51
Eastern countries tempted by American aid are ordered to fall into line.
31:00
Sixteen countries in total enter into the Marshall Plan. All to the West. France, the United Kingdom and Italy are the biggest beneficiaries. In mid-1947, the curtain Churchill's Iron Railway became a reality
31:26
A city will pay the price new balance of power between Westerners and Soviets. Berlin.
31:40
The German capital is located right in the heart of the Soviet occupation zone. But the city itself is busy by the four allied powers, UNITED STATES, Britain, France and USSR.
31:56
Together, everyone must deliver Germany on its feet. But the allies are not agree on the procedure to follow. Priority for the Soviets is to obtain their war reparations, because the USSR is ruined.
32:13
As provided for in the peace agreements, the Russians compensate themselves in kind and dismantle German industry.
32:20
Entire factories are being cut up and brought to the Soviet Union to be reassembled. Opposite, the Americans, they are rebuilding.
32:34
As they promised with the Marshall Plan, the Americans gave to Germany 16 billion dollars. We on our side, we gave nothing, but we were not able to give anything. We couldn't compete.
32:53
West, life gradually resumes while the eastern sector of Berlin remains abandoned.
33:02
The Americans would like to go further and undertake extensive reforms in order to revive the German economy.
33:09
Stalin opposes this. He wants to maintain the status quo.
33:15
What Stalin wants, that is, that there is a comparable level of poverty on both sides of Berlin and that the isolated West Berliners, end up falling under the influence of the East Germans. This capitalist enclave in the middle of a communist sea, what is East Germany, it's not bearable.
33:39
To break the deadlock, Westerners do not see only one solution: merge their zones.
33:45
This will cause, undoubtedly, the anger of Stalin. Until what point ? The generalissimo could it start a war?
33:56
Before acting, Westerners need information. And that's why, there is only one way, spying.
34:05
However, at the start of the Cold War, the American secret services are, so to speak, non-existent.
34:12
It is, moreover, interesting to note that during the Second World War, in 1942, the Roosevelt administration created an intelligence service which is the OSS, and that this service intelligence ceases its activity at the end of World War II in 1945. So between 1945 and 1947, the United States has no service intelligence as such.
34:37
In the summer of 1947, Truman therefore decided to create a new intelligence agency which will soon be known worldwide: the CIA.
34:48
Henry Hillenkoetter, a former admiral is appointed at its head.
34:53
Hillenkoetter has the heavy task of recruiting and to train spies in all haste. The problem is that we have to find Russian speaking spies and apart from the Russians themselves, there aren't many people. For this former agent British secret services, this posed serious difficulties.
35:15
The problem was knowing how far we could trust to someone who was Russian by birth in the case of important secrets. because we never had the guarantee that at the same time, he wouldn't work too at the same time for the Russians.
35:33
Hillenkoetter then leaves in a hurry. In pragmatics, it's among the enemies from a few months ago that he is going to recruit his spies. Reinhardt Gehlen, a former Nazi ex-intelligence chief in the East in the Wehrmacht, is recycled by the CIA.
35:53
Gehlen knows very well the communist world. He will become the brains of American espionage in Germany.
36:02
Through him, hundreds former Nazis join the CIA. Americans do not have the slightest qualms. The only thing that matters to Truman, it is to block Stalin's path.
36:17
The sky has changed. The cold war, the enemy, it wasn't Germany, it's the Soviet Union, limit, take people who are extremely anti-communist. Of course, former Nazis are obviously very very anti-communist. So there we are in complete realpolitik.
36:39
Faced with the CIA, the Russian secret service of the GRU and the KGB are also very active.
36:46
They are one step ahead because their intelligence services have existed since WWI. Berlin will become the capital of espionage.
36:58
In the street, in administrations, in the army, There are spies hiding everywhere.
37:06
All, whatever their side, have the same objective which is to decipher the opponent's plans to get ahead of him.
37:18
Spying, it was a new style of warfare
37:23
in which we didn't need a gun.
37:30
We penetrated the heart of the enemy's thought system.
37:40
As Truman asked them, Gehlen and his men seek to know what would Stalin's reaction be if Westerners merged their area into Berlin.
37:52
In late spring 1948, German spies finally think they have the answer.
38:02
On June 9, Hillenkoetter warns then Truman by telegram.
38:07
According to the head of the CIA, if Westerners regrouped their zone of occupation, this is how Stalin would react.
38:16
The USSR will probably ensure to put sticks in the wheels of Westerners in Berlin and everywhere else where she can in Germany, but without resorting to force.
38:30
It's the green light that the Westerners were waiting.
38:34
Four days later Hillenkoetter's telegram, Americans, British and French create a new currency in their area, the Deutsche Mark. For Stalin, this currency, symbol of capitalism, is a provocation. He must mark the occasion.
38:51
Like German spies had anticipated it, the generalissimo then decides economic retaliation.
39:03
On June 24, 1948, he cuts off all the supply routes to West Berlin.
39:12
The roads that connect Germany to West to West Berlin are blocked.
39:18
Two and a half million Berliners are trapped. Without food, they won't be able to last long.
39:27
In Washington, part of his staff pushes Truman to respond with force.
39:33
The American President choose another option. Supply Berlin by air.
39:41
He didn't want to trigger another war with the Soviets. It was even the last thing he wanted. But he didn't want no longer appear weak and show that we did not react. Because if you let the Soviets block Berlin Next, they would do the same thing elsewhere. I don't believe the idea of the airlift was his, but he accepted it because it made sense.
40:10
Four days after the start of the blockade, huge American cargo planes and British troops fly over Berlin.
40:19
In their bowels, tons of food and equipment and the famous CARE packages.
40:27
These packages, packaged by the American NGO CARE, contain everything you need to survive. Bacon, margarine, powdered eggs, chocolate. Taste of America.
40:40
What Stalin hadn't imagined at all, it’s that the Americans, the English and the French united had the means to maintain for 11 months
40:52
a supply from West Berlin at a rate of 6,000 tonnes per day. That is to say, every day, at the three Berlin airfields, there is a plane which lands every 30 seconds.
41:12
For a year, the Berliners will live to the rhythm of the planes who take turns day and night above their heads.
41:20
Despite American aid, daily life remains difficult.
41:26
To hold on, everyone manages. We see appear sowers in the middle of the city.
41:32
Vegetables, soon, grow in the middle of the asphalt.
41:36
To warm up too, This is system D. Americans do not send enough coal, then the Berliners take the wood where he finds it.
41:48
The trees are uprooted.
41:51
No more benches in the city still has no boards.
41:58
On the stairs, we exchange everything that is possible. Coats bags shoes.
42:07
Berliners lack everything, but they hold on.
42:17
The Americans, too, are determined to hold on at all costs.
42:21
And as Gehlen predicted, Stalin does not give the order to shoot down American planes.
42:31
He was not ready to go to war because the Americans had the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union could not endure a new war while we had already had more than 20 million deaths during the Second World War.
42:45
Understanding that he has lost the arm wrestling part, on May 12, 1949, Stalin lifts the blockade.
42:56
Everywhere in West Berlin, it’s an explosion of joy.
43:01
For the communist leader, failure is bitter.
43:05
The little shopkeeper from Missouri made the man bend the most feared on the planet. In his memoirs, Truman rejoices. He knows that in the race which opposes him to Stalin, he has just scored a decisive point.
43:20
The blockade had quickly returned the Germans against communism. Germany, who had waited passively to see towards whom she would throw its destiny for the future, was now turning towards the cause of Western nations.
43:33
It does exactly the opposite of what Stalin wanted who always wanted to sow the discord between the allies. It seals reconciliation and friendship between the German people and the Americans, of course. They have become extremely popular. These are the men which allowed the survival of West Berlin.
43:58
Fifteen days after the blockade was lifted, Westerners create the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviets responded with the Democratic Republic of Germany. This time, yesterday's allies are officially become enemies.
44:15
To the White House, Kennan is terrified. A visionary, he wrote:
44:21
"At the end of the day, our policy on the continent takes us to a situation where there are only three solutions: a Soviet collapse, a disintegration from our own position or a terrible war."
44:36
This threat of a terrible war weighs every day a little more about the world. Stalin did not digest the snub of the blockade. He is trying to regain the upper hand.
44:47
Through effort, he will, once again, succeed in reversing the situation.
44:59
On August 29, 1949, to the amazement of Westerners, the Russians blow up an atomic bomb in Kazakhstan. Fuchs's information and his comrades infiltrated at Los Alamos ended up bearing fruit.
45:16
Intelligence services Soviets helped us to accelerate the creation of the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union and they allowed us to save a lot of resources.
45:27
Our scientists think that the information received by our secret services allowed us to shorten the time of the creation of the bomb from ten to five years.
45:40
For Truman, the surprise was great. He never would have imagined that the Soviets, ruined by the war, take so little time to develop nuclear weapons.
45:54
Stalin feels strong again. Soviet Union has once again become the equal of the United States. The world enters the balance of terror.
46:07
This cold war, Raymond Aron summed it up very well saying it's an impossible war, impossible because it would be atomic, improbable peace. Impossible war, improbable peace.
46:24
Conflicts, in fact, will soon burst. But they will remain local and will be done by interposed powers. Because never blood between Americans and Soviets will not have to sink. At the risk of causing a widespread conflagration.
46:48
It's in a small country, that very few Russians and Americans would be located on the map, that the first of these conflicts post-World War II will break out. Korea.
47:00
Since 1945, Korea, which belonged to Japan, is busy on both sides of the 38th parallel. To the south, the Americans. To the north, the Soviets.
47:14
Since that time, Kim Il-sung, the communist North Korean leader, seeks to reunify his country.
47:22
Many times, he asked Stalin for help. The Soviet always refused.
47:30
However, on January 12, 1950, the generalissimo changes his mind.
47:37
Because of a very small sentence spoken by Dean Acheson, the American secretary of state, That day, in his speech on American military ambitions, Acheson wrote: “Our defensive perimeter is expanding from the Aleutian Islands to Japan", " Passing by Ryukyu and the Philippines".
47:57
He forgot Korea.
48:00
This is the stupid thing not to do. There was Taiwan, Tokyo, there were the Philippines, there was everything, but he forgot Korea, it's not smart.
48:09
It's curious for someone as wise as Dean Acheson. Finally, he made a mistake and it was taken by Stalin as an encouragement. And he said to himself that after all, Americans may have become soft again.
48:24
Stalin then gave the green light to Kim Il-sung to take action. On June 25, 1950, at 4 a.m., the North Korean army crosses the 38th parallel.
48:39
Truman, on weekend in his home in Missouri, is immediately notified.
48:46
The American President then does not have the shadow of a hesitation. We must respond with force.
48:53
In his memoirs, he remembers. If such a scenario were not prevented in Korea, this signified the start of a third world war. Because these are similar incidents who had caused The Second World War.
49:11
The Americans did not expect to an attack in Korea. They have practically no troops there.
49:18
The North Koreans are making progress with disconcerting ease and capture Seoul in less than a week.
49:26
Truman is extremely concerned. How will this all end? The president writes to his wife. I hope I don't have to give the order to release our terrible weapon.
49:42
Truman will not need to use the atomic bomb, because he can count on a man, General MacArthur
49:49
Great hero of the war in the Pacific, he is responsible for administering Japan. He knows Asia well and he is an outstanding tactician.
50:00
In a few months, MacArthur manages to resume the advantage over the communists.
50:06
In November 1950, the Americans have almost completely invaded North Korea. They are very close from the Chinese border
50:15
The Cold War threatens to become very hot because since 1949, neighboring China became communist. Mao then dispatches 500,000 Chinese volunteers to help to his North Korean brothers.
50:31
Here too, we finally notice, Mao's prudence in this conflict. That he doesn't want intervene as a state and he uses this artifice Chinese volunteers to, in a way, intervene unofficially.
50:50
There is, of course, empirically, not theorized, a mastery of the Cold War. Everyone moves forward, but each ensures that everything is under control so that the cold war don't become a general war, global and nuclear
51:14
For Truman, this situation particularly tense for months is psychologically exhausting.
51:23
In his diary he writes: what hell to be the president of the most powerful nation on Earth! I would rather be the first in my village.
51:35
The American President don't call the White House anymore other than “the white prison”.
51:47
In Korea, the conflict is bogged down and it's a totally event unexpected which will end the war.
51:57
Stalin will disappear.
52:11
March 1, 1953,
52:14
Kuntsevo Dacha, in the vicinity of Moscow.
52:18
Stalin now lives here as a recluse.
52:21
The man who does shake the whole planet locked himself into a paranoid delirium. He is afraid of being murdered.
52:30
That night, when Stalin goes to bed, he drank a lot.
52:36
In the night, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
52:40
For ten hours, he is dying without anyone doesn't dare push the door to his room. Everyone is too scared possible reprisals.
52:51
He died alone. And all those who could have cared for him, including his doctor, is in prison. He could have gotten over it. When the old sidekicks arrive, the Khrushchevs, the Berias, the Voroshilovs, the Malenkovs and all these people, they dare not do anything.
53:13
Because that could be blamed on them, they bring in doctors, but the doctors are afraid. They don't even dare to make a diagnosis because the KGB is behind them. And he said to them: comrade be careful what you write and be careful what you find.
53:35
Lack of proper care. After four days of agony, on March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin dies.
53:47
As soon as the news was known, five million people flock to Moscow.
53:56
Everyone wants to see the remains of the one who had the right of life and death over them for a quarter of a century.
54:09
Many people who hated Stalin said: Praise God. He finally burst. Many others saw in him a kind of god and they were stunned by the fact that their god could be mortal.
54:25
The third feeling that dominated and which was valid for everyone was “What will happen now?”
54:34
The whole world is in shock. While Molotov and those close to him of Stalin carry his coffin, everyone thinks about what’s next. In Moscow, London or Washington, people hope that the disappearance of the Soviet dictator will put an end to tensions. Hopes will quickly be disappointed. Eight years of constant conflict and larvae between America and the Soviet Union have shaped the world to this extent, that it is impossible to suddenly backtrack.
55:05
The Cold War initiated by Stalin and Truman will continue to rule the world and make it tremble men for almost 40 years.
56:08
February 1945. For six years, Europe has been a gigantic battlefield.
56:16
Millions of men died.
56:26
But this time, the certainty of defeating Nazi Germany is finally here and the Allies are already thinking about the future.
56:40
Because it is now, while that the fighting still rages, that we must prepare for peace.
56:54
Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill will therefore decide to get together. This meeting will take place in a small seaside resort from the south of the Soviet Union.
57:05
It's there, in Crimea, that the three giants will imagine together the post-war world during one of the biggest conferences of all time, the Yalta conference.
57:27
From Yalta, history has remembered this photo.
57:31
But what a path traveled to get there? Why these tense faces at Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin?
57:40
United in war, the Allies will prove to be divided and rivals in peace.
57:45
For eight days, from February 4 to 11, 1945, the big three are going engage in a merciless struggle, both their interests and their ideologies oppose them.
57:58
In Yalta, it's the last time that they will all see each other together. Each of them is then at a crucial moment in his own destiny, while with this conference, the world will soon darken into new darkness.
58:27
February 3, 1945. After seven hours of flight, American and British planes, gone into the night, land on the frozen ground from Saki Airport, Crimea.
58:43
When he got off the plane, Winston Churchill is stiff. He has a fever of 39. But the Prime Minister British gives the change. Even sick, he is ready to write a new page in history.
58:59
Franklin Roosevelt, President American, too, is ready, despite extreme fatigue.
59:07
On the track, diplomats and soldiers greet each other.
59:11
In Yalta, many of them will keep logbooks. Thanks to their confidences, we know what really happened passed during this conference. Their writings tell everything that the official history does not mention it.
59:31
Stalin did not deign come and welcome their guests to Saki. His absence is already a way to play the balance of power.
59:39
Negotiations have indeed begun.
59:43
It is therefore Molotov, the faithful right arm of the Soviet leader, who is waiting for Roosevelt and Churchill at the foot of the plane.
59:52
Eaten away by poliomyelitis, Roosevelt can no longer walk. On foot at his side, Churchill seems to be in a position of inferiority.
1:00:05
The strangeness of this scene does not escape Lord Moran, Churchill's personal physician, who takes offense in his diary.
1:00:15
“The Prime Minister followed on foot, alongside the president, like when, in his last years, an Indian steward accompanied Queen Victoria's stagecoach. »
1:00:29
And it's not the last time in Crimea Churchill will appear as Roosevelt's steward. Because already, while the war is still not over, the British Empire has lost its splendor. The United States and the Soviet Union are the two new giants of the century.
1:00:48
In Yalta, Churchill goes having to fight to exist.
1:01:03
Yalta is 150 kilometers from Saki. It takes no less five hours to get there, The road is so bad and winding.
1:01:14
For Roosevelt, a new test begins.
1:01:20
He was paralyzed.
1:01:23
To travel by car, he had to sit in the back with two cushions behind him to corset his back and support his legs which had become completely useless.
1:01:38
It was truly a very difficult journey.
1:01:44
As the war continues on the European continent, the course has been placed under close surveillance. 160 combat planes crisscross the sky.
1:01:56
Anna Boettiger, Roosevelt's daughter who accompanies him on this journey, is amazed to see the means deployed by the Soviets.
1:02:05
In her diary she writes:
1:02:08
" All along of the road between Saki and Yalta, soldiers had been posted every 300 meters. Everytime that a car passed in front of them, those who did not have a gun greeted us. All these Russian soldiers, women understood, were chic and straight. »
1:02:26
Through the window, Roosevelt and Churchill discover a spectacle of desolation.
1:02:38
Crimea was recaptured to the Germans barely a year ago.
1:02:42
Nearly 20 million Russians lost their lives.
1:02:47
70,000 towns and villages Soviets were annihilated.
1:02:55
The USSR was deeply scarred by the war. And Stalin himself supervised the itinerary of its guests so that no destruction does not escape them.
1:03:10
This will allow Stalin, and that is of course his skill, somehow, to make his two interlocutors feel guilty, Roosevelt first. We have a lot of deaths, implied because you did not come to save us.
1:03:32
After five o'clock of an endless journey, Roosevelt and Churchill arrive finally to Yalta in the early evening. Roosevelt is exhausted.
1:03:42
For him, the journey has begun 12 days ago, when he crossed the Atlantic in boat before taking the plane to Malta. In total, the American president traveled 8,500 kilometers, Churchill 3,200, and Stalin, came by train, only 1,500.
1:04:02
As if the number of kilometers made sense and that Roosevelt was the one who was willing to put in the most effort, Stalin least.
1:04:23
Yalta Bay has lost none of its charm. In the 19th century, it was a sort of Soviet Riviera where tsars and aristocrats came on vacation.
1:04:37
The participants at the conference will be welcomed in palaces remained intact today.
1:04:46
Before the negotiations did not open in February 1945, they had been completely restored.
1:05:00
In anticipation of the conference, there was a very rapid refurnishing of things that came from Moscow by entire convoys to make an appearance hospitable to all these palaces who had suffered a terrible lack of maintenance for a very long time.
1:05:28
Stalin imposed the choice of Yalta. He therefore wants his guests don't have to regret it.
1:05:34
He will receive them with magnificence.
1:05:38
He reserved for them the two most beautiful villas.
1:05:42
The Livadia Palace for Roosevelt. It is here that took place the negotiations.
1:05:50
And the Vorontsov villa for Churchill.
1:05:59
That night, the night is clear on Yalta.
1:06:03
Each of the big three takes strength for the upcoming marathon.
1:06:20
February 4, 1945. First day of negotiations. Before the debates begin, Stalin pays a visit of courtesy to its guests. To Churchill first.
1:06:34
The two men have not seen each other since four months during a meeting in Moscow. They are happy to meet again and take stock of the military situation.
1:06:49
The reunion with Roosevelt are also warm. The Russian and the American share a Martini, Roosevelt's guilty pleasure.
1:06:59
And the lemon is missing. Stalin takes note, and the next time, indeed, he brings in a gigantic lemon tree. It impresses them, because for the English as for the Americans, a whole lemon tree, in full war, and in the month of February, it's something fabulous. They are literally dazzled.
1:07:22
And, at the same time, it serves to show the power of Stalin.
1:07:30
Because on the ground, Stalin is in a position of strength.
1:07:34
Since spring, the roll Soviet compressor is running and the Red Army takes over territories to the Germans. For Stalin, the time to monetize his war effort has come.
1:07:55
At 5:00 p.m., the negotiations finally begin.
1:07:59
In the Livadia ballroom, fitted out for the conference, everything is ready.
1:08:04
Ministers and diplomats discuss them while waiting for the big three.
1:08:13
Churchill is the first to arrive at Livadia with his daughter Sarah.
1:08:17
The Prime Minister is in a good mood and wearing a Russian hat to honor his host.
1:08:24
He's getting better. After a good night of sleep, the fever has broken.
1:08:29
Stalin arrives after him.
1:08:34
In front of the cameras, the two men display their complicity.
1:08:42
Roosevelt, for his part, had already settled in negotiating table in complete discretion.
1:08:49
The same thing will repeat itself the next days.
1:08:53
He forbade us to film his arrivals, considered too humiliating.
1:08:58
He had to be carried from his chair rolling to another chair. Which is not easy when you are paralyzed from the waist down.
1:09:10
The private advisors of the three adults take place around them. Because they are not going to negotiate alone.
1:09:19
Churchill is accompanied by Anthony Eden, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the diplomat Alexander Cadogan, specialist in Poland.
1:09:30
Roosevelt will rely on Harry Hopkins, his right-hand man and friend, the man he trusts the most, but also on Edward Statinius, his Minister of Foreign Affairs.
1:09:46
Stalin has two main advisors: Vyacheslav Molotov, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the diplomat Ivan Maisky.
1:09:58
Four big files are on the table: the fate of defeated Germany, that of Poland, the UN and the war against Japan.
1:10:10
On all these files, the position of the different allied armies will play a determining role.
1:10:25
Since December, the Red Army liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland. The Russians are no longer only 80 kilometers from Berlin.
1:10:40
Slowed down by a German counter-offensive, the Anglo-American troops, they still have not crossed the Rhine.
1:10:51
We can say that from a military point of view, the Soviets are clearly ahead of Westerners and, from this point of view, hold the upper hand, which can have consequences from a diplomatic point of view.
1:11:10
In addition to this asymmetry on the ground, there is another, ideological.
1:11:16
Churchill and Roosevelt are two capitalists facing a communist. However, they do not necessarily united front against Stalin. On the contrary. Because in fact, the two men are quite ideologically distant from each other. Roosevelt appreciates Churchill, because it's the old war horse, because he stood alone in Europe in 1940, and that he admires this guy who is still capable of extraordinary performances, and, at the same time, a certain contempt,
1:11:48
because he considers that it is an old antediluvian colonialist, while he considers that he has modern ideas, notably the decolonization of the world.
1:12:01
Roosevelt needs of Stalin more than of Churchill. Because at the same time in the Pacific, Americans are at war with Japan.
1:12:12
The fights are incredibly violent and the Japanese do not hesitate to send kamikaze planes on the enemy rather than surrender.
1:12:25
Without help from the Soviets, the war risks dragging on.
1:12:39
Roosevelt also counts on Stalin to participate in the future United Nations, that he wants to put in place.
1:12:47
Without the USSR, the UN will be just an empty shell.
1:12:53
To advance your project, Roosevelt is ready to sacrifice Churchill. He is an acquired ally who has nothing to bring him. Churchill saw this very badly. He knows very well that Stalin will exploit to death any discrepancy between the English and the Americans. So for him, It’s absolutely disastrous. Because the British Prime Minister suspects Stalin of wanting to install communist regimes in all countries liberated by the Red Army.
1:13:21
Without Roosevelt's help, Churchill knows he will not have the means to prevent it.
1:13:38
During this first day, only military issues are discussed. Everyone observes each other. In the tactical game which begins, Stalin immediately takes control. He suggests that Roosevelt chairs the plenary sessions.
1:13:54
By putting him as president, somewhere, we flatter him, but also, we reduce it a little helpless, because he will have to to serve as a bit of master of ceremonies. And meanwhile, we will be able to observe, we will be able to reflect, we can negotiate a little behind his back. It's very clever from Stalin.
1:14:21
This first session negotiations was a warm-up round. Nothing important is decided there, but Westerners understood that it would not be easy to do hear their voice in the face of Stalin. So, in the evening, everyone sharpens its strategy for the next day.
1:14:39
Churchill thinks alone and calmly, admiring the paintings British aristocrats that Stalin had the attention to hang on the walls to please him. Roosevelt, for his part, developed his plan to battle with Harry Hopkins.
1:15:07
Second day. Churchill arrives first again,
1:15:15
while Stalin is once again desire. This time things serious things will begin. The question of Germany is under debate. What fate awaits Germany once she loses the war? How to administer it? What repairs are required? On all these questions, the Allies have different positions.
1:15:38
Discussions begin on the problem of its future occupation. Since 1944, it was planned that once defeated, the country would be divided and administered in three zones: American, British and Soviet. But now Churchill calls for a fourth zone... for France. He doesn't want to be alone anymore against these two giants who want a little to colonial empires. He therefore wants to have this complicity with another colonial power. Stalin finally, good prince, will say:
1:16:10
the French did not really beaten during the war. We don't see why. They collaborated. They gave in very quickly in 1940. They don't deserve it. But anyway, okay, but then you take it on your own areas of occupation.
1:16:27
The concession costs him nothing. Stalin quickly gives in. But he takes the opportunity to ask an effort to its allies, in return.
1:16:37
He wants to get the most reparations from Germany. The USSR is ruined. The Boches must pay.
1:16:47
This revanchist perspective frightens Roosevelt and Churchill. And this time, both Westerners stick together.
1:16:56
If we plunder Germany and starve Germany to please Stalin, how do we get it up afterwards? It will necessarily be on our own funds, and we are the ones who will pay for Stalin's reparations. So it's bad, it's not good. Faced with this refusal, Stalin turned away. Annoyed, he becomes suspicious. The Soviet attacks to his allies and is aggressive.
1:17:22
Frankly, look me in the eyes. Why don't you want the reconstruction of the USSR? Are there no ulterior motives? on your side, you Westerners, not wanting reconstruction legitimate of our country? Why do you want weaken our country?
1:17:39
So much for the threat. Now the bluff. Stalin is going to pull out all the stops. And for this, he will rely on his accomplice Molotov with whom he forms an unparalleled duo.
1:17:53
Both men are masters in the art of diplomacy.
1:17:57
Molotov is the hard version, it's Mr. "niet". He's the one who's not funny, who will generally stay on the hardest positions.
1:18:10
And, in general, the moment where Stalin intervenes, it will be to soften the angles, to say: “Finally, you exaggerate ! Why be so harsh? » In the German case, we must now put forward a figure for the amount of repairs. Nothing has been decided by the Soviet delegation. Only a minimum and a maximum were considered. In his diary, the diplomat Russian Ivan Maïsky recounts the scene.
1:18:41
“Molotov, who was sitting to the right of Stalin, leans towards him and asks him, worried: Do I have to give an amount? -Yes, give the amount, Stalin retorted. -Which ? Five or ten? -Ten, Stalin says. »
1:18:56
It's a way of showing that we are in discussion, that nothing is completely decided, and so it all seems more reassuring for the interlocutors who are opposite. 10 billion for the Soviet Union. It goes. Nobody says anything. Stalin then considered that the amount is accepted. Westerners did not dare to react. But this decision will have serious consequences later. Because faced with a Germany unable to pay such a sum, the Soviets will compensate themselves in kind and dismantle German industry.
1:19:36
After this first round of negotiations, each of the big three withdraws in his palace to breathe.
1:19:49
Like he usually does, Stalin dives into the files and prepares the next day’s debates.
1:19:56
At his office, even today, everything remained as it was.
1:20:04
At the Livadia Palace, Roosevelt, find some rest and serenity with his daughter Anna. For several years, she became his confidante, and Roosevelt took it with him everywhere.
1:20:19
She didn't just offer companionship pleasant of a daughter for her father. She was very aware of the files.
1:20:27
We live in the White House at that time and I would say that she was rather a kind of personal assistant who was not paid. It was a bit like his right arm.
1:20:44
15 kilometers away, in Vorontsov, Churchill is with his daughter Sarah. The young woman is an actress and, since the war, she is a volunteer assistant in the Royal Air Force. Churchill likes this joyful presence at his side.
1:21:00
The girls are delighted to participate. At the same time, they are very happy to show their daughters in uniform to show that the whole family participates, and at the same time, it’s very well seen by those around you. We can make them do things that we don't dare to do ourselves. For example, Churchill tendency to get up very late because he works in his bed. He is in his bath all the time and we can't send an aide-de-camp to get him out of bed or his bath. It's impossible.
1:21:33
On the other hand, you can send your daughter.
1:21:40
In the evening, as during almost all week, the big three are going to invite each other to dinner. The opportunity to continue negotiations in a less formal manner.
1:21:53
The first of these dinners takes place at Livadia. The Americans provide the service, but the Russians provided the food. And Stalin made a point of honor so that everything is grandiose.
1:22:09
You have 15, 20 or 30 course dinners, with caviar, sturgeon, cream... Cream is rationed in England, we don't even know what it is anymore. We forgot. In the meantime, the people Soviet starving, but it has no importance for Stalin. The whole thing is to show them his power. This is Georgian and Russian munificence. It is: I can do anything. As a host, ask for what you want. Psychologically, it gives a huge ascendancy. I am your master, but, at the same time, I am your servant.
1:22:45
It's beautiful and at the same time threatening.
1:22:49
So that means we are entirely dependent of Stalin's good will. This is Yalta, among others.
1:22:59
So that its guests feel comfortable and in good spirits towards him, Stalin planned everything. At the table, alcohol flows freely.
1:23:10
We know very well that if we want a negotiation to succeed, the interlocutor must be confident. And drinking is part of it, always, means that are made available inviting power. And there, there is a whole game, to know who will drink the most. Alcohol played a role in Yalta, that’s clear.
1:23:36
This first dinner brought the Allies closer together. Trust was established. Negotiations begin under new auspices.
1:24:02
So that everyone can recover from these drunken evenings, plenary sessions take place at the end of the afternoon. But in the morning, the collaborators of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill are at work to prepare for the debates. They imagine compromises possible on the different files.
1:24:22
It’s then up to the big three to decide.
1:24:31
On the third day of negotiations, February 6, the Polish file arrives on the table.
1:24:39
This is the most difficult of the conference. It is also the most symbolic, because it is in Poland that the war began.
1:24:47
The Allies must put establish a new government. But they don't agree on anything. Stalin has always considers that Poland represents a danger to his country.
1:25:00
Because throughout history, it's always through Poland that Russia has been invaded. Stalin therefore wants that Poland becomes a friendly country. In fact, he wishes provide a protective glaze all around the Soviet Union so that she will never be attacked again.
1:25:19
The Soviets wanted buffer states.
1:25:23
Everyone knew that, for the Russians, it was a central point of their foreign policy.
1:25:33
And when you think about it, if you were a big country like the USSR was, you wouldn't want to have hostile states on your borders. You would like friendly states.
1:25:45
But what is a friendly country? Is it a friendly country which simply has a foreign policy friendly towards the Soviet Union and who, in domestic politics, is completely free? Or is a friendly country, from one thing to another, is a country that is going to be communized? That's the big question.
1:26:04
For the British, no question of having declared the war on Hitler because of Poland so that she becomes a communist.
1:26:12
At the end of the conflict, Churchill wants Poland become free and independent.
1:26:20
Britain was traditionally friendly with Poland.
1:26:25
The English did a lot trade with the Poles.
1:26:31
They did not want a country as important as Poland, in terms of trade and human potential, comes under communist domination if they could avoid it.
1:26:45
For Roosevelt, far from Europe, the Polish question is more incidental.
1:26:50
But she still its importance, for other reasons. There are 6 million American citizens who are of Polish origin.
1:27:00
And these American citizens vote mostly democrats, that is to say, for the party of Roosevelt. It is therefore very sensitive to what can happen in Poland.
1:27:13
These Polish citizens refugees in the United States are fiercely anti-communist. Most of them arrived in America before the First World War, but they have not forgotten that in 1939 Stalin agreed with Hitler to invade Poland.
1:27:34
These Poles in America, just like the British, support the Polish president Władysław Raczkiewicz, in exile in London since 1940. The problem is that in front of him, there is another government, communist this time.
1:27:51
This government under influence Soviet is led by Boleslav Bierut. It is located right in the middle from Poland, to Lublin, and calls itself the Lublin Committee.
1:28:07
The London government and that of Lublin hate each other. Because six months ago, the irreparable between them has happened.
1:28:22
August 1944.
1:28:24
At that time, the Red Army was at the gates of Warsaw.
1:28:31
Raczkiewicz, in London, decides to start the insurrection.
1:28:37
He wants the resistance liberate the Polish capital themselves before the communists, in order to keep control over the future government.
1:28:49
But the German response was fierce. For 63 days, the resistance fighters are decimated.
1:29:00
Knowingly, Stalin lets this happen and orders the Red Army not to move.
1:29:13
200,000 Poles were massacred by the Nazis. The Polish capital is more than 90% destroyed.
1:29:24
2 months later, Stalin comes to pick the ripe fruit and install a government communist in Warsaw.
1:29:39
In Yalta, behavior of Stalin weighs in the negotiations. Churchill never digested that the Soviet allowed to perish the Warsaw resistance fighters without helping them.
1:29:51
There, he understood that he did not have deal with a good, caring uncle, and that we could therefore not give him only very limited confidence, that he was dealing with a dangerous bandit, and that, ultimately, even if it were necessary get rid of Hitler first, we were going to have real problems comparable with Stalin after the war.
1:30:17
But now, in Yalta, despite suspicion and resentment, Allies must form together the government of the future Poland. The whole issue is knowing which entity policy must be taken as a basis.
1:30:32
Obviously, from the point from the perspective of the Anglo-Americans, we must build a government of national unity from the different components policies of anti-fascist Poland. From the point of view of the Soviets and Stalin, it's just about leaving from the base of government as it exists in Warsaw and add a few members.
1:31:03
A standoff begins. Stalin does not want to hear talk about the government in London. On the other hand, every time than Churchill or Roosevelt take a step towards him by proposing personalities to bring into the government of Lublin, he refuses. Why would he accept? Stalin knows he is in a position of strength.
1:31:26
Soviet troops were in these countries. They occupied these countries, even if we didn't dare use the word occupation.
1:31:36
At any rate, they were there.
1:31:41
In a way, the influence of the Soviet Union was inevitable.
1:31:50
The Allies fail not to get along. Little by little, the tone rises.
1:31:57
Stalin is becoming more and more agitated.
1:32:01
By his side, Ivan Maisky is petrified. In his diary, he recounts the scene.
1:32:08
“Suddenly Stalin stood up and said big gestures with his right arm. Such behavior when of a conference with the big three wasn't really appropriate. He started to speak with unusual annoyance. »
1:32:22
Stalin is a very taciturn person and someone very calm too, except a few times where he will get angry. So, these moments appear all the more important. Getting up and to suddenly have a very emotional tirade on a subject, it's a way of showing very clearly to his interlocutors the things on which there is nothing to negotiate.
1:32:50
The Soviet tirade leaves his allies KO.
1:32:55
Hopkins, who witnesses the catastrophe, then slips a little note to Roosevelt, who chairs the debates.
1:33:03
“Why not end it? with this today? Say we'll talk about it again tomorrow. It’s 7:15 p.m. »
1:33:10
Better stop the fees and try to leave on new bases the next day. The mastery with which Stalin leads the negotiations stands out to everyone. Uncle Joe, as Westerners call it, exercises power of fascination on the delegations.
1:33:29
In the evening, in his room, diplomat Alexander Cadogan writes:
1:33:34
“Uncle Joe is the most impressive of the three. He is very calm and reserved. When he intervenes, he never uses a superfluous word and gets straight to the point. »
1:33:46
The British Secretary of State Anthony Eden is no less admiring.
1:33:51
“By subtle methods, he gets what he wants without seeming to be stubborn. ".
1:33:58
Still, all the credit of Stalin cannot be attributed just his talent as a negotiator. Because what Eden and Cadogan ignore, that's what Uncle Joe does spy on his allies. Even before the Yalta conference does not open, he knew everything.
1:34:22
Preparing for the conference of Yalta lasted several months.
1:34:27
At the time, services Russian intelligence were very well established in England and the United States.
1:34:37
Our agents gave us complete information on how Churchill and Roosevelt were preparing for the conference. We knew what and how they wanted to discuss and what position they were going to defend during all negotiations.
1:34:54
To avoid missing anything, Russian secret services have also peppered the palaces with microphones.
1:35:02
Churchill and Roosevelt knew that.
1:35:07
What they don't know, and where they are naive, is that, obviously, for things confidential, they go out to the park.
1:35:16
But in the park, we posed omnidirectional microphones which are everywhere. There are some in the trees, in the foliage, in the bushes... and they pick up the conversations several meters around.
1:35:30
Stalin does not take these listenings lightly. He doesn't want to miss a beat. He even demands that his spies come in person report to him everything that was said.
1:35:46
Stalin asked how things were said. He even asked have the dialogues repeated to him with the intonation that Churchill or that Roosevelt had taken.
1:35:59
In the game poker which is played in Yalta, the cards are rigged. Stalin knows the game of his adversaries. He knows exactly where he's going, where its partners are in the dark and grope their way forward.
1:36:37
On the fourth day of negotiations, we must finalize the Polish file.
1:36:43
Thanks to yesterday's listening, Stalin knows that his allies are ready to sacrifice Poland to bring about other more essential files for them.
1:36:53
For Roosevelt, what matters is it's the UN and Japan. For Churchill, it is a file which will never be addressed directly in Yalta, but which is underlying, that of Greece.
1:37:08
The country is an ancient British protectorate. It's an issue strategic for the English, because Greece is opening the way to the Suez Canal which allows them to access their colonies.
1:37:24
But for two years, Greece has been in the grip of a violent civil war. Communists are trying to overthrow the king. They hold the campaigns and are at the gates of power.
1:37:36
If Greece falls into communism, it's the whole Empire British which will be threatened.
1:37:42
Churchill fears this disaster scenario.
1:37:46
To avoid it, he therefore took the initiative and engaged in perilous bargaining.
1:37:55
In October 1944, four months before Yalta, the British Prime Minister has met Stalin in Moscow, face to face. Roosevelt was then in the middle of the electoral campaign for his re-election. Taking advantage of the absence of the American president, Churchill then proposed a secret agreement on Europe to Stalin.
1:38:18
When we talk about sharing the world, it was not in Yalta that it took place, it was in Moscow, when Churchill and Stalin met.
1:38:29
The document, scribbled on the corner of the table, is written by hand by Churchill and annotated by Stalin.
1:38:36
Like two grocers, the leaders each assigned themselves percentages of influence in Eastern Europe. 90% for Russia in Romania, 75% for the Soviets in Bulgaria, 90% for Great Britain in Greece.
1:38:57
At Yalta, Churchill hopes that Stalin will take this agreement into account. And so that the Soviet leaves your hands free in Greece, the British Prime Minister is ready to drop some ballast on Poland. This agreement of percentages contrasts obviously with the idea of an intransigent Churchill and who would absolutely have never wanted compromise on the question of zones or spheres of influence in Europe.
1:39:28
So as not to offend Stalin, Westerners therefore end by showing off conciliatory on Poland.
1:39:35
On the fourth day of negotiations, the American and the British let go Raczkiewicz's government in exile and recognize the government communist from Bierut to Lublin.
1:39:46
In return, Churchill and Roosevelt obtain that non-communist ministers enter the government of Lublin.
1:39:54
Stalin also undertakes to organize free elections in Poland after the war, as well as in all countries liberated by the Red Army.
1:40:04
This word “free election” sounds as a victory for the Westerners, even if they did not obtain no guarantee from Stalin. All they could get from Stalin, these were declarations good intentions and formulas which saved face before their respective parliaments.
1:40:27
They're almost there.
1:40:30
What do they could do more? But how can we imagine free elections when the territory is completely occupied by Soviet armies? This is where there is an illusion from Westerners. Because in exchange for these promises, Westerners grant a huge favor to Stalin. They allow him to constitute its protective glaze by attaching a part from Poland to the USSR. In compensation, Poland will recover later German territories. The country will thus carry out a translation towards the west.
1:41:09
In the Polish case, It's a big hit for Stalin. The Soviet obtained everything he wanted. His allies now hope that Stalin will remember it.
1:41:35
This February 8, it's sunny bursting into the Crimean sky.
1:41:41
Roosevelt is nervous because the discussions on Japan must begin.
1:41:46
The American president absolutely needed Soviet support.
1:41:52
To put all the chances on his side, Roosevelt then invites Stalin to share a Martini just before the plenary session.
1:42:01
Churchill was not warned. The meeting between the two allies takes place behind his back.
1:42:08
Roosevelt fears that the impetuous Briton does not prevent him from negotiating freely and doesn't ruin everything.
1:42:15
Then the American president believes also to the virtues of the tête-à-tête.
1:42:24
He believed he could develop a personal relationship with Joseph Stalin. And I think Roosevelt felt that he could influence Stalin thanks to this relationship privileged relationship that he maintained.
1:42:39
But that doesn't work with people like Stalin.
1:42:45
He didn't imagine how cruel Stalin was and free from all human feeling.
1:42:57
At the same time, in the Pacific, Americans know significant setbacks facing a fanaticized Japanese army.
1:43:05
Without the help of the Russians, the American general staff calculated that the war could last another year and cost the lives of more than 500,000 GI's.
1:43:16
Roosevelt is determined to avoid this bloodbath.
1:43:22
Stalin knows it and he raises the stakes.
1:43:26
In exchange for cannon fodder Soviet, he wants territories. And the marshal is greedy. He demands Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. But also the occupation from Port Arthur, Dairen, and a path iron in Manchuria. The negotiations do not bear on Sakhalin, nor on the Kuriles, because it belongs to Japan and the Americans are fully ready to give away Japanese territory to the Soviets. Dairen and Port-Arthur, it's more annoying because it belongs to China. China is Chiang Kai-shek.
1:44:01
Chiang Kai-shek, it is the ally of the United States,
1:44:05
and he was not invited to Yalta. Roosevelt can therefore be reproach, notably by its Senate, to make concessions to Stalin at the expense of an ally. That's very annoying.
1:44:20
But Stalin tries his turn to coax Roosevelt. With his charm, he will succeed good to find a solution and to accept things to Chiang Kai-shek.
1:44:33
Charles Bohlen, Roosevelt's interpreter, reports in his memoirs:
1:44:38
“Stalin said it was clear that if its conditions were not met, it would be difficult for him, as well as Molotov, to explain why the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan. It is clear that Roosevelt was annoyed by this situation. »
1:44:54
Roosevelt hesitates. But in the face of intransigence from the Soviet, the American swallows his scruples. What matters to him, is to put an end to this war. Go to Dairen and Port Arthur. Roosevelt sacrifices the Chinese. He'll figure it out later with Chiang Kai-shek, once the war is over.
1:45:22
The American President can be satisfied. He fulfilled his objectives.
1:45:29
On Japan, but also on the UN. This new organization wanted by Roosevelt has the ambition to guarantee peace in the world.
1:45:40
Stalin agreed in principle to take part.
1:45:46
Effective participation of the USSR is far from being acquired, but it is already a first step. This is a big concession to make him admit that he is going send Molotov to Dumbarton Oaks for preliminary negotiations. Even that is a big concession from Stalin. Stalin keeps saying: “If so, your thing of the UN, I wouldn't want it. Do I go to send Molotov or not?
1:46:17
He knows how to play it very well. It is an artist.
1:46:43
Sixth day of negotiations. This February 9, 1945, Churchill,Roosevelt and Stalin can display their good humor in front of the cameras. UN, Japan, Germany, Poland: on all these files, the big three have found compromises and everyone got what mattered most to him. Churchill imposed himself as an equal against the big two. He lifted France in the winning camp. He assigned him an occupation zone in Germany. The American president, he got the green light from Stalin on the UN and on Japan.
1:47:23
With Churchill, he also snatched to Stalin the promise to organize free elections in Poland and in Eastern Europe after the war.
1:47:33
But it's the marshal Soviet who wins.
1:47:37
Unquestionably, it's the Soviet Union and Stalin who emerge victorious of this Yalta conference. Stalin got what he wanted regarding Poland and he got more or less this what he wanted regarding Germany, in any case, the principle of reparations.
1:48:00
The image of a perfect understanding between the big three will tour the world. However, it is misleading.
1:48:08
In Yalta, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill made sure to get along. They wanted to preserve the Alliance, while the war was still not finished. But deep down, each of them defended his worldview and its own interests. The Yalta agreements are precarious. They are the result of compromise and rely only on the fragile understanding between three exceptional personalities.
1:48:35
On the last day of negotiations, However, everyone wants to believe it.
1:48:43
In the evening, delegations make toasts to friendship between peoples and the peace of humanity.
1:48:52
But this hope won't last only a short time. The agreement that the big three celebrate will soon be shattered.
1:49:11
Just three weeks after the end of the conference, Stalin violates the Yalta agreements.
1:49:18
In Romania, while the Army red still occupies the country, he organizes the taking of power by the communists. Poland, every time his allies propose a name of a non-communist minister to bring into government, Stalin refuses it.
1:49:35
Roosevelt, until then if confident, get scared. After Yalta, Roosevelt began to become disillusioned. He realized that the Stalin he imagined did not match quite like the real Stalin.
1:49:53
On April 1, the American president sends a long telegram to his dear Stalin in order to obtain explanations. “I cannot hide from you the worry I feel in front of the way in which it takes place, since our successful Yalta meeting, events where our common interests are at stake. Honestly, I can't understand why recent events in Romania should be considered like not falling under the terms of our agreement.
1:50:22
But Roosevelt's warnings did not move Stalin in any way. Without the slightest scruple, the Soviet unfolds its plan and continue to install communist regimes in the east. Roosevelt dies for 11 days after sending his telegram. He will never see the extent of the betrayal.
1:50:41
Churchill, who, to everyone's surprise, will lose the elections in England, must attend, helpless and alone, to their failure.
1:50:50
In Yalta, the big three will not have given birth to this long-awaited world of peace. The dream of fraternity will only have been an illusion. Soon, yesterday's allies will become enemies, confronting each other in a conflict of a new kind: the Cold War.
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat