Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War) (92 page)

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There is no comparison between reading about events afterwards and living through them from hour to hour. In Mr.

Eden I had a colleague who knew everything and could at any moment take over the entire direction, although I was myself in good health and full activity. But the Vice-President of the United States steps at a bound from a position where he has little information and less power into supreme authority. How could Mr. Truman know and weigh the issues at stake at this climax of the war? Everything that we have learnt about him since shows him to be a resolute and fearless man, capable of taking the greatest decisions.

In these early months his position was one of extreme difficulty, and did not enable him to bring his outstanding qualities fully into action.

To my first and formal telegram of condolence and salutation the new President sent a most friendly reply.

I wrote:

Prime

Minister

to

13 Apr. 45

President Truman

Pray accept from me the expression of my personal
sympathy in the loss which you and the American
nation have sustained in the death of our illustrious
friend. I hope that I may be privileged to renew with you
the intimate comradeship in the great cause we all
serve that I enjoyed through these terrible years with
him. I offer you my respectful good wishes as you step
into the breach in the victorious lines of the United
Nations.

Mr. Truman assured me he would do everything in his power to forward the cause for which President Roosevelt gave his life, and to guard and promote the intimate solid

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568

relations between our countries which he and I had forged.

He hoped to meet me, and promised in the meantime to send me a telegram about Stalin’s messages on Poland.
2

A very informative telegram from our Ambassador reached me a few days later.

Lord Halifax to Prime

16 Apr. 45

Minister

Anthony and I saw Harry Hopkins this morning. We
both thought that he looked rather frail and fine-drawn…. He had not been greatly surprised by the
President’s death, and was thankful that he had not
had a stroke and lost power like Wilson. For some time
he had noticed how much the President had failed. He
had been able to do only very little work.

He judged President’s death to have created a
completely new situation in which we should be starting
from scratch. One thing we could be certain of would be
that the policy would be very much more the concerted
action of the Senate. How this would work it was quite
impossible to predict. Much would depend on his
personal judgments of the people with whom he would
be dealing.

Harry thought, on the whole, it had worked out for
the best that you had decided not to come over now.

To give Truman a few weeks to find his feet was very
much to the good. Meanwhile you could be exchanging
personal messages, which would make him begin to
feel he knew you. Anthony suggested that it would be
better, especially if events went the way that looked
likely, and if Truman came over to see the United
States troops, for him to stop in London en route, which
we should like also on general grounds, and which F.

D. R. had promised to do. Harry liked that idea….

As regards himself, Truman had asked Harry to give
him notes on foreign and international policy, which
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Harry was doing, but he could certainly not carry on in
his present job. Truman probably would not want him,
and Harry anyhow would not do it. Truman’s methods
would be quite different to those of F.D.R.: he would
conduct his own business, and there would be no room
for Harry’s particular line of usefulness. They had
mentioned the future in a talk they had yesterday, but
not much more than to say that they must talk again
when Harry was well….

It may be of interest that Truman’s hobby is history
of military strategy, of which he is reported to have read
widely. He certainly betrayed surprising knowledge of
Hannibal’s campaigns one night here. He venerates
Marshall.

To Stalin I said:

Prime

Minister

to

14 Apr. 45

Marshal Stalin

I have received your message of April 7. I thank you
for its reassuring tone, and trust that the “Crossword”

misunderstanding may now be considered at an end.
3

I have been greatly distressed by the death of
President Roosevelt, with whom I had in the last five
and a half years established very close personal ties of
friendship. This sad event makes it all the more
valuable that you and I are linked together by many
pleasant courtesies and memories, even in the midst of
all the perils and difficulties that we have surmounted.

I must take the occasion to thank you and Molotov
for all the kindness with which you have received my
wife during her visit to Moscow, and for all the care that
is being taken of her on her journey through Russia.

We regard it as a great honour that she should receive
the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on account of
the work she has done to mitigate the terrible sufferings
of the wounded soldiers of the heroic Red Army. The
amount of money she collected is perhaps not great,
but it is a love offering not only of the rich, but mainly of
the pennies of the poor, who have been proud to make
their small weekly contributions. In the friendship of the
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570

masses of our peoples, in the comprehension of their
Governments, and in the mutual respect of their armies
the future of the world resides.

Marshal

Stalin

to

15 Apr. 45

Prime Minister

I have received your message on the occasion of
the death of President Roosevelt.

In President Franklin Roosevelt the Soviet people
saw a distinguished statesman and a rigid
4
champion
of close co-operation between the three States.

The friendly attitude of President Franklin Roosevelt
to the U.S.S.R. will always be most highly valued and
remembered by the Soviet people. So far as I
personally am concerned I feel exceptionally deeply the
burden of the loss of this great man, who was our
mutual friend.

Eden, who was now in Washington, wrote:
Foreign

Secretary

15 Apr. 45

(Washington)

to

Prime Minister

The Ambassador and I had a talk with Stettinius
shortly after my arrival this morning. Stettinius said that
both Stalin and Molotov had shown signs of being
deeply moved by the President’s death. Stalin had
asked Harriman whether there was any contribution he
could make at a moment like this to assist to promote
the unity of the great Allies. Stettinius said that
fortunately Harriman had not at once replied “Poland,”

but instead had suggested that it would be a good thing
if Molotov could come to San Francisco for the
Conference. Stettinius had seized on this, and
telegraphed urging not only that Molotov should come
to San Francisco, but also that he should come to
Washington first for conversations. An hour ago
Stettinius rang me up to say that the Russians had
agreed to this course and that Molotov was coming by
an American aircraft which had been sent to bring him.

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571

I suppose therefore that he will be here by Tuesday,
when I plan that we should embark upon the Polish
issue.

2. This is all good news, but we ought not to build
too much on it, for it yet remains to be seen what
attitude Molotov adopts when he gets here. At any rate,
it is stimulating to have a chance to get to grips….

3. Stettinius also spoke to me this afternoon about
the debate in the House of Commons this week on
Poland, and said that he hoped that you would be able
to indicate that events have taken a new turn in the
light of the meeting of the three Foreign Secretaries. I
agreed, but told him that it was my view that it would do
the Russians no harm to know how deep was our
concern at the failure of the Moscow commission thus
far to make progress on the basis of Yalta decisions. I
feel strongly that we must keep a steady pressure on
the Russians. There is no justification yet for optimism,
and our best chance of success in any of the
conversations here is that the Russians should
understand to the full the seriousness for us all of the
failure.

And the next day:

Foreign

Secretary

16 Apr. 45

(Washington)

to

Prime Minister

Edward and I paid our first call on the President this
morning. He made a good impression. I told him how
touched and pleased you had been with his first
message to you. I repeated your regret that it had not
been possible for you to come to Washington on the
occasion of the late President’s funeral, but said that
you hoped an early meeting would be possible. The
President said that he warmly reciprocated these
sentiments. We would understand that he had inherited
heavy responsibilities. He had to familiarise himself with
a wide range of subjects. It was however his intention
to continue on exactly the same lines of foreign policy
as the late President had followed….

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I then reverted to the subject of a meeting between
you and the President, and said that the President
would probably recall that President Roosevelt had
planned to make an early visit to Europe, making
London his first port of call. I knew that His Majesty and
you and all His Majesty’s Government would be much
gratified if President Truman felt able to carry through
this programme. The President said that he would like
this very much, but we should understand for the
moment that he had a number of immediate duties to
carry through here. He must deal with a number of
urgent domestic issues, and he must also familiarise
himself with the late President’s policies, on a wide
range of subjects. It was not therefore possible for him
to give a definite answer now. I got the impression
however that he would like to come, though it may be
that the date will have to be later than President
Roosevelt contemplated….