My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (Hardcover)

~ (Editor) "IN the spring of 1941, as German forces began massing for an attack on his country, Stalin refused to believe the reports confirming Hitler's intention..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Soviet Union, Roosevelt Stalin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection is a history junkie's delight. Many of the letters—the final one was approved by Roosevelt only minutes before his death in 1945—are filled with understanding and praise for the sufferings that the U.S.S.R. is going through. Roosevelt expresses this sympathy repeatedly (and understandably, given the wartime miseries of the Soviet Union): "We are filled with admiration for your magnificent resistance," he wrote in August 1942. More interesting, perhaps, are the maneuverings over their differences, most of which are known to students of the war: Stalin's desire for a second front against the Nazis; debates over how to deal with the wartime Polish government and the postwar borders with Poland. There are no big surprises, but the correspondence shows how the groundwork for what would become the Cold War was already in place even when the United States and the U.S.S.R. were allies. Butler's introduction and explanatory text help thread the messages together. Those who read this will gain a firsthand look into the minds of two world leaders thrown together by Hitler and the contingencies of war. (Jan.)
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Review

"'...one of the most important collections of 20th-century correspondence for a long time' Antony Beevor, The Times '...an indispensable tool for historians of the period...' Richard Overy, Literary Review 'This is a very important book of source and reference material which ought to stay in print for many years, and of enduring interest not only for scholarship about Stalin, but perhaps even more about Roosevelt.' John Lukacs 'My Dear Mr. Stalin is a fascinating historical collection of letters between the two most powerful men on earth - hence this is both highly important and vibrantly human. The result is a captivating book that will be obligatory for all scholars of the Grand Alliance and those interested in how the World War was won.' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner and Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar 'Susan Butler has dusted the cables down and presented the Stalin-Roosevelt correspondence as a full record... history is indebted to her.' Frances Stonor Saunders, The Guardian" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300108540
• ISBN-13: 978-0300108545
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,039 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Black and White--the Betrayal of Poland, January 23, 2006

By	William H. Szych "Lt Col, USAF Retired" (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The review you posted by Publishers Weekly literally made me want to gag. This book is not a "history junkie's delight"; it is the essence of Poland's 50 year nightmare from 1939 to 1989.

As a retried U.S. military officer and Polish-American baby-boomer whose father fought at places like Iwo Jima during WWII, I have great interest in the betrayal of Poland during WWII. Anyone who knows about the Katyn Forest Massacre (done by Dear Mr. Stalin), the Warsaw Rising of 44 (when Dear Mr. Stalin refused to allow the Allies to come to the aid of the people of Warsaw) and the mass deportations and genocide against the Polish people, will be highly interested in this book.

A great percentage of the letters are about the "Polish Problem." And I am afraid the Polish Problem still exists today whereby people glorify the contributions of the Soviet Union led by a mass-murderer whilst at the same time being almost totally ignorant of the contributions of Poland to the defeat of Nazi Germany. The effectiveness and impact of Poles of the 1st Polish Armored Division, the two Polish Fighter Squadrons during the Battle of Britain, and the Poish heroics and sacrifices at places like Monte Cassino are either unknown or minimized. To this, add the contributions of hundreds of thousands of Polish Americans, sons and grandsons of Poland, like my father and more famous (maybe not so famous) Polish Americans like Col Gabreski and Lt Col Urban.

At Amazon.com, you stock books like "A Question of Honor" which should be read by all those who want to truly know what wartime misery is all about. Shame on anyone who tries to varnish or glorify the abject misery that Stalin (not Hitler) brought to his own people but especially to the Polish nation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Roosevelt legacy, September 10, 2009

By	Rodolfo Torres Rendon (Guadalajara Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (Paperback)

Very nice compilation of Roosevelt writings to Stalin, had he lived a while longer we might've had a better world!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Responding to Another Review that is not Quite Accurate, March 1, 2008

By	T. Carlsen - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (Paperback)

This review is in response to the other review here that suggests the Yalta myth. For background information, one misleading myth invented to smear FDR is that he sold-out Eastern Europe in the Yalta agreement, but that's simply not true. The Yalta agreement called for "free and unfettered elections" in Eastern Europe and "the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government" to the people of Eastern Europe. I urge everyone to actually read the Yalta agreement.

This is what the Yalta agreement actually says:
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II. DECLARATION OF LIBERATED EUROPE
The following declaration has been approved:
The Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America have consulted with each other in the common interests of the people of their countries and those of liberated Europe. They jointly declare their mutual agreement to concert during the temporary period of instability in liberated Europe the policies of their three Governments in assisting the peoples liberated from the domination of Nazi Germany and the peoples of the former Axis satellite states of Europe to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems.

The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations.

To foster the conditions in which the liberated people may exercise these rights, the three governments will jointly assist the people in any European liberated state or former Axis state in Europe where, in their judgment conditions require,

(a) to establish conditions of internal peace;
(b) to carry out emergency relief measures for the relief of distressed peoples;
(c) to form interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of Governments responsive to the will of the people; and
(d) to facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections.
The three Governments will consult the other United Nations and provisional authorities or other Governments in Europe when matters of direct interest to them are under consideration.
When, in the opinion of the three Governments, conditions in any European liberated state or former Axis satellite in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult together on the measure necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in this declaration.

By this declaration we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our pledge in the Declaration by the United Nations and our determination to build in cooperation with other peace-loving nations world order, under law, dedicated to peace, security, freedom and general well-being of all mankind.

In issuing this declaration, the three powers express the hope that the Provisional Government of the French Republic may be associated with them in the procedure suggested.

VII. POLAND
The following declaration on Poland was agreed by the conference:
"A new situation has been created in Poland as a result of her complete liberation by the Red Army. This calls for the establishment of a Polish Provisional Government which can be more broadly based than was possible before the recent liberation of the western part of Poland. The Provisional Government which is now functioning in Poland should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from Poles abroad. This new Government should then be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity.

"M. Molotov, Mr. Harriman and Sir A. Clark Kerr are authorized as a commission to consult in the first instance in Moscow with members of the present Provisional Government and with other Polish democratic leaders from within Poland and from abroad, with a view to the reorganization of the present Government along the above lines. This Polish Provisional Government of National Unity shall be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot. In these elections all democratic and anti-N azi parties shall have the right to take part and to put forward candidates.

"When a Polish Provisional of Government National Unity has been properly formed in conformity with the above, the Government of the U.S.S.R., which now maintains diplomatic relations with the present Provisional Government of Poland, and the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the United States of America will establish diplomatic relations with the new Polish Provisional Government National Unity, and will exchange Ambassadors by whose reports the respective Governments will be kept informed about the situation in Poland.

"The three heads of Government consider that the eastern frontier of Poland should follow the Curzon Line with digressions from it in some regions of five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland. They recognize that Poland must receive substantial accessions in territory in the north and west. They feel that the opinion of the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity should be sought in due course of the extent of these accessions and that the final delimitation of the western front."
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Ronald Reagan wrote in his autobiography "An American Life" (page 305) that, as president, he sincerely wrote to the Soviet leadership and insisted that they honor their commitment to freedom in Eastern Europe as expressed in the Yalta agreement. He wrote that he "proposed that the Polish people only be given the right to self-determination that had been promised to them by Joseph Stalin himself at the Yalta Conference. At Yalta, I reminded them, Stalin had promised Poland and all the countries of Eastern Europe the right of self-determination, but the Soviets had never granted it to any of them."

According to "The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism" by Paul Kengor (pages 211-212), on the fortieth anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, Reagan declared, "Let me state emphatically that we reject any interpretation of the Yalta agreement that suggests American consent for the division of Europe into Spheres of influence. On the contrary, we see that agreement as a pledge by the three great powers to restore full independence and to allow free and democratic elections in all countries liberated from the Nazis after World War II and there is no reason to absolve the Soviet Union or ourselves from this commitment." Yalta did not sell-out Eastern Europe. Indeed, Yalta required the opposite.

I urge everyone to simply read what the Yalta agreement actually says. You can read it on the Internet. The agreement, you will see, is very favorable to the West and the people of Eastern Europe.

What the letters in this book show is that FDR maneuvered to keep the Allies together long enough to destroy Adolf Hitler but that the tensions of the Cold War were forged in World War II. The Soviet Union lost 17 million people in World War II while America lost 400,000. FDR needed to keep the Soviets from quitting the war until America was ready to liberate Europe. FDR was a poker player in real life and was excellent at the game of diplomacy, including bluffing and shmoozing with meaningless shmooze. Then at the end, FDR shrewdly got Stalin to sign the Yalta agreement, which was very favorable to the West and the people of Eastern Europe.

In fact, Stalin's advisor urged him not to sign it. After FDR died, Stalin broke the promises agreed in writing at Yalta, and FDR's successors - Truman and Eisenhower - did nothing about it. Truman gave Soviet foreign minister Molitov "a tongue lashing," demanding that they honor the promises. With Soviet armies in Eastern Europe, there was probably little that Truman and Eisenhower could do short of another world war, which the American public did not support. Instead, Truman and Eisenhower used the policy of containment.

It's amazing that this myth continues to bamboozle people who are too lazy to check the facts.