Territorial Bloggings

January 24, 1943 - President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

WDTM? The two most significant decisions at Casablanca were the demand of an unconditional surrender by the Axis, and the agreement to aid the Soviets. Thus began the journey down the slippery slope of FDR thinking he could reason with, and trust, Uncle Joe Stalin. At least Churchill knew he was entering a dance with a devil, albeit (he thought) a lesser devil than Hitler. Sir Winston knew that he couldn’t trust Stalin, but wartime (as with politics) makes for strange bedfellows. FDR, however, was not so realistically pragmatic. Given the Socialists that he seemed to attract at the highest levels of his administration, I guess it’s not all that surprising that he would be favorably predisposed to working “with” Stalin. It’s still quite unfortunate, though, as it laid the foundations for the Cold War, especially after the capitulation & ceding of Eastern Europe to the Soviets at Yalta.

-ghp