I'm John Batchel with Professor Paul Thomas Chamberlain.

Scorched Earth is his book.

It takes an arduous journey by a very ill and weakened precedent to reach Alton. Starting in January, they reached an early

February and drive across a landscape that is, well, it's apocalypse now. It's wrecked completely

by the Germans in their fight for Ukraine. And they go to a

palace that is primitive beyond belief. There's one restroom for all of them, all of these

dignitaries from the three allies, America, Britain, and Russia. You notice China's not

at the table. The altar conference requires a great deal of attention, however, because it's

here that Roosevelt made it evident that he was romancing Stalin. To what end, Professor?

What was the president's ambition?

So by the time that Yalta comes around,

it's no longer a question of whether or not the allies will win,

but a question of when they're going to achieve victory.

And it's with that in mind that Roosevelt is going to, he's going to go to Yalta in an attempt to get the British and the Soviets on board with his vision for a post-war world.

That vision was articulated in very, very rough terms with the Atlantic Charter,

but really what Roosevelt wants is a world, a post-war world that is characterized by cooperation between the victors of the Second World War, between the allied powers.

And he understands that the Soviet Union is an incredibly powerful player on the world stage.

It has been transformed into an incredibly powerful player

because of the Second World War and the military buildup that the Soviet people were forced

to undertake in order to defend themselves against Nazi Germany. And he knows that there will be

no post-war peace without Soviet involvement.

He also knows, however, that the Soviet Union is an incredibly oppressive authoritarian state

...