On FDR, Truman, Life Magazine, & Uncle Joe
Fact is, Ish, that during the war practically everyone hoped that Uncle Joe was really our friend. As I have posted before, the most fulsome tribute I ever saw to Uncle Joe was in Henry Luce's Life Magazine. After all, we were allies with the Soviet Union; we were sending them Lendlease, etc. A certain amount of self-deception regarding the nature of our "ally" was perhaps to have been expected, especially since your average American, at the time, thought of himself/herself as allied with the Soviet people, not with Joe Stalin personally.
I am not at all sure that those who thought Uncle Joe would be our friend in the war against fascism were any worse than those who had earlier thought that Uncle Adolf would be our friend in the struggle against Communism.
As for Truman specifically, I really don't know what his thoughts about Uncle Joe were while the war was still going on. But I do remember him articulating the "Truman Doctrine" not that long after the war was over, and the change in tone in American policy sure shocked a lot of friends of Uncle Joe. |
