Read Online The History Buff's Guide to World War II by Thomas R. Flagel - Free Book Online Page B

Roosevelt and a politically compromised Churchill naively gave in to a land-hungry Stalin. In reality, it was the high point of Allied cooperation, when all three participants were naive and optimistic, incapable of foreseeing how future events—namely the death of an enemy and the detonation of an atomic device—could destroy what Yalta had achieved. 23

    The Big Three met for the last time at Yalta. Roosevelt had only two months to live. In four months, Churchill was out of power.
In the interest of security, transcripts from the Yalta Conference were not made public until 1947.
    10. HITLER’S SUDDEN DEPARTURE (APRIL 30, 1945)
    Undoubtedly, nothing united the Allies as much as Adolf Hitler. By striking fear among his rivals, the German Führer drove together devout ideological enemies. On April 30, 1945, that unifying force ceased to exist. Trapped in his Berlin bunker with the Red Army only blocks away, Hitler decided to take his own life, stating that he “preferred death to cowardly abdication or even capitulation.” 24
    As time would prove, Hitler’s decision meant the end of Allied cooperation. Confirming the impact of the Führer, Germany became the epicenter of East-West hostilities for more than forty years. No other location was remotely as divisive—not Japan, not Italy, not even Poland—where a tacit gentlemen’s agreement assured Soviet domination. In blasting a hole through the back of his head, Hitler arguably fired the first shot of the cold war. “Now he’s done it, the bastard,” said Stalin upon hearing the news of the warlord’s suicide. “Too bad he could not have been taken alive.” 25
Fearing Hitler’s corpse would become a rallying point for future Nazi uprisings, the Soviets took his charred remains from the Berlin Chancellery garden on May 2, 1945, and secretly transported them to Moscow. The Soviet government waited until 1968 before admitting they had taken the body.

    SPEECHES
    The Second World War may have been the zenith of the political speech. Never before or since had so much been at stake and the public so affixed upon the voices of their leaders. Never before had so many heard the same words simultaneously, as Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels contended, “I hold radio to be the most modern and most important instrument of mass influence that exists anywhere.” And since the advent of television, never again would sound have the same leverage as image in politics. 26
    Of the following presenters, three deserve particular attention for their skills. Franklin D. Roosevelt mastered the radio like no other. Armed with a select circle of exceptional speechwriters and a baritone intonation of absolute refinement, he exuded confidence and was equally capable in a room of a thousand faces or a single microphone. In turning words into works of art, few politicians ever matched the esteemed Winston Churchill. Almost inept at impromptu deliveries, he labored for hours to write out his dissertations, each one an elegant script. In stirring mass rallies, no one ever equaled Adolf Hitler. Followed more for the passion rather than the substance of his messages, Hitler could credit oration as the alpha and omega of his power.
    Listed here in chronological order are the most significant speeches uttered by Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, and others during the conflict, based on the extent to which each message dictated policy and defined the war itself.
    1. “THE ANNIHILATION OF THE JEWISH RACE” (HITLER—JANUARY 30, 1939)
    Hitler’s 1925 wandering rant of Mein Kampf publicized his deep-seated hatred for “international Jewry” and its supposed destructive effect on German culture. The Third Reich’s anti-Jewish laws, growing in number and ferocity since 1935, also demonstrated a political willingness to let harsh rhetoric turn into punishing edicts. But in a Reichstag speech on the sixth anniversary of his ascension to the chancellorship, Hitler spoke of an answer to the