2/8: Unconfirmed reports of disorder in the Kremlin: 2/8: Stalin's War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 14 May 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
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2/8: Unconfirmed reports of disorder in the Kremlin: 2/8: Stalin's War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-New-History-World/dp/1541672798
Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversar2
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS I In The World. I'm John Batchworth, professor Sean McMeacon. His new book is |
| 0:10.2 | Stalin's War, a new history of War War II. Stalin setting the imperialist states against |
| 0:15.1 | each other, tearing each other up and how gobble up territory. Except Stalin was out of equipment, |
| 0:21.0 | weapons, food, in order to continue the fight. So he came to depend almost like |
| 0:29.6 | child on the arsenal of democracy. The arsenal of democracy run by FDR and the American people. |
| 0:38.0 | However, we come to troubles, especially early 1942-43, in which FDR and Churchill make a deal, |
| 0:49.2 | although it was Eisenhower who did it, with the French commander of the North African forces, |
| 0:55.6 | a man who switches side, goes from being a fascist sympathizer to an American sympathizer. His name |
| 1:01.3 | was Darlon. It's an obscure detail of history, but it did bother FDR. I learned from the professor a |
| 1:08.0 | lot. So we come to January 1943, the Kazablanca conference in North Africa. Stalin does not attend. |
| 1:15.6 | Churchill's there, Roosevelt's there. Sean, why does FDR announce unconditional surrender? |
| 1:23.3 | Well, it's a great question, John. And the Darlon deal and the kind of almost political stench |
| 1:29.0 | surrounding it. It definitely has something to do with this. In part, because Roosevelt was used |
| 1:32.4 | to the kind of the conservative southern Democrats and the Republicans attacking him for various |
| 1:37.4 | things from the quote unquote right. But he's getting it from the left now, too. They're all saying |
| 1:41.4 | he's sort of soft that he's cut some deal with this fascist Vichy regime that he's soft. |
| 1:47.1 | And this is a little bit of an obsession for Roosevelt because of course it plays in with his own |
| 1:51.6 | complex that really the US is not doing enough to really fight the Germans. |
| 1:55.6 | I mean, after all, it was a little strange to begin with that he had declared Germany first as |
| 1:59.5 | the priority. This back in Arcadia, December 41 after Pearl Harbor. And then on top of that, |
| 2:04.0 | they declared the number one priority inside of Germany first was aid to Russia's offensive by |
| 2:08.1 | all available means. And he's done everything he can to please Stalin. They've sent him just about |
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