The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

[Dogdaddy]

There's been a series on TV about Stalin's secrets that were unknown to the West until the early 1990's after the fall of communism. I caught only one episode, but it was very interesting. Stalin it seems had some rather large expectations when he and Hitler signed the "no-attack" agreement in 1939, shortly before the invasion of Poland. After the first agreement was signed, he sent Molotov back to Berlin to deliver a message to Hitler that basically said that "We (Russia) would not stand by if our German friends found themselves in trouble with England and France." Stalin seems to have had ambitions on a full partnership with the nazis rather than just a non-aggression agreement. Hitler and his cohorts had a big laugh about that behind Stalin's back, knowing full well that they would in reality never consider the Russians, who they considered inferiors as their "equals." As we know today things didn't work out so well on Hitler's side, but Stalin ended up with half of Europe behind the Iron Curtain after Hitler betrayed him. Stalin understood treachery, which is why he was so paranoid about the possibility of US Ambassador Allan Dulles brokering a deal with Himmler during the secret meetings in Sweden....a deal which could have ended up with the Allies & the Krauts joining forces against the Bolsheviks. Of course after the death camps were discovered that never would have happened. My own personal opinion is that Presidents Roosevelt and (later) Truman made the right call by choosing the lesser of two evils.......even if evil number two was only "lesser" by a short hair.