Read Online World War II Behind Closed Doors by Laurence Rees - Free Book Online
Authors: Laurence Rees
Ads: Link
and the whole atmosphere over there is “pink”’. 49
Once in Roosevelt's presence, Earle outlined the evidence that had made him certain in his own mind that the Soviets had committed the murders at Katyn – evidence that included testimony from Bulgarian and ‘White Russian’ agents, as well as a number of photographs from the burial site. ‘About this Katyn massacre, Mr President’, said Earle. ‘I just cannot believe that the American President and so many people still think it is a mystery or have any doubt about it. Here are these pictures. Here are these affidavits and here is the invitation of the German Government to let the neutral Red Cross go in there and make their examination. What greater proof could you have?’
‘George’, said President Roosevelt, ‘they could have rigged things up. The Germans could have rigged things up’. Roosevelt was adamant that ‘this is entirely German propaganda and a German plot’. 50
‘Mr President’, insisted Earle, ‘I think this evidence is overwhelming’.
Earle also made it plain during the meeting that he was ‘very much worried about this Russian situation. I feel that they are a great menace, and I feel that they have done their best to deceive the American people about this Katyn business, and, also primarilythe most important of all, by this dreadful book of Joe Davies' Mission to Moscow which made Stalin out to be a benign Santa Claus. We never recovered from that. It made such an impression on the American people’.
‘George’, said Roosevelt, ‘you have been worried about Russia ever since 1942. Now let me tell you. I am an older man than you are and I have had a lot of experience. These Russians, they are 180 million people, speaking 120 different dialects. When this war is over, they are going to fly to pieces like a centrifugal machine cracked through and through travelling at high speed’. This, Earle said, was Roosevelt's ‘stock in trade’ answer: ‘We have nothing to fear from the Russians because they would fly to pieces’. Earle felt ‘hopeless’, and his last words as he left Roosevelt were: ‘Mr President, please look those over again’.
The Earle story has a revealing postscript. In March 1945 he decided that he ought to tell the world his view about the Soviets, but as a loyal friend of the President's he first asked for permission to make his observations public. Almost by return he received a note of admonition from Roosevelt. ‘I have noted with concern your plan to publicize you unfavourable opinion of one of our allies’, wrote the President on 24 March 1945, ‘at the very time when such a publication from a former emissary of mine might do irreparable harm to our war effort…. To publish information obtained in those positions without proper authority would be all the greater betrayal…. I specifically forbid you to publish any information or opinion about any ally that you may have acquired while in office or in the service of the United States Navy’. 51
‘I think that he really basically felt that my father had let him down by not staying with the team’, says Lawrence Earle. ‘And Roosevelt was a man that demanded a team effort. I mean, he wanted people around him…when he said jump, they jumped’.
Just a few days later, Earle learnt in practical terms what the President thought of him. He was on a boat, fishing in a remote lake in Maryland, when suddenly he looked up and saw another boat coming towards him. On board were two FBI agents. They came alongside and said: ‘Mr Earle, we have a letter for you’. Itcontained the news that – with immediate effect – Earle had been appointed assistant head of the Samoan Defence Group. This meant he had to leave for the Pacific at once – all because the President had directly ordered the Navy Department to send him ‘wherever’ they could made use of Earle's services. His son Lawrence, then an officer with American forces in the Pacific, was able
Once in Roosevelt's presence, Earle outlined the evidence that had made him certain in his own mind that the Soviets had committed the murders at Katyn – evidence that included testimony from Bulgarian and ‘White Russian’ agents, as well as a number of photographs from the burial site. ‘About this Katyn massacre, Mr President’, said Earle. ‘I just cannot believe that the American President and so many people still think it is a mystery or have any doubt about it. Here are these pictures. Here are these affidavits and here is the invitation of the German Government to let the neutral Red Cross go in there and make their examination. What greater proof could you have?’
‘George’, said President Roosevelt, ‘they could have rigged things up. The Germans could have rigged things up’. Roosevelt was adamant that ‘this is entirely German propaganda and a German plot’. 50
‘Mr President’, insisted Earle, ‘I think this evidence is overwhelming’.
Earle also made it plain during the meeting that he was ‘very much worried about this Russian situation. I feel that they are a great menace, and I feel that they have done their best to deceive the American people about this Katyn business, and, also primarilythe most important of all, by this dreadful book of Joe Davies' Mission to Moscow which made Stalin out to be a benign Santa Claus. We never recovered from that. It made such an impression on the American people’.
‘George’, said Roosevelt, ‘you have been worried about Russia ever since 1942. Now let me tell you. I am an older man than you are and I have had a lot of experience. These Russians, they are 180 million people, speaking 120 different dialects. When this war is over, they are going to fly to pieces like a centrifugal machine cracked through and through travelling at high speed’. This, Earle said, was Roosevelt's ‘stock in trade’ answer: ‘We have nothing to fear from the Russians because they would fly to pieces’. Earle felt ‘hopeless’, and his last words as he left Roosevelt were: ‘Mr President, please look those over again’.
The Earle story has a revealing postscript. In March 1945 he decided that he ought to tell the world his view about the Soviets, but as a loyal friend of the President's he first asked for permission to make his observations public. Almost by return he received a note of admonition from Roosevelt. ‘I have noted with concern your plan to publicize you unfavourable opinion of one of our allies’, wrote the President on 24 March 1945, ‘at the very time when such a publication from a former emissary of mine might do irreparable harm to our war effort…. To publish information obtained in those positions without proper authority would be all the greater betrayal…. I specifically forbid you to publish any information or opinion about any ally that you may have acquired while in office or in the service of the United States Navy’. 51
‘I think that he really basically felt that my father had let him down by not staying with the team’, says Lawrence Earle. ‘And Roosevelt was a man that demanded a team effort. I mean, he wanted people around him…when he said jump, they jumped’.
Just a few days later, Earle learnt in practical terms what the President thought of him. He was on a boat, fishing in a remote lake in Maryland, when suddenly he looked up and saw another boat coming towards him. On board were two FBI agents. They came alongside and said: ‘Mr Earle, we have a letter for you’. Itcontained the news that – with immediate effect – Earle had been appointed assistant head of the Samoan Defence Group. This meant he had to leave for the Pacific at once – all because the President had directly ordered the Navy Department to send him ‘wherever’ they could made use of Earle's services. His son Lawrence, then an officer with American forces in the Pacific, was able
Similar Books
![All in the Chemistry [The Royal Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Allure)](https://fs.dianahicksbooks.com/534986/thumbs/152x264/all-in-the-chemistry-the-royal-wolves-4-siren-publishing-allure.jpg)
