The Pittsburgh Press (September 16, 1946)
Whither the Big Three…
Close ties with Allies spurned by Russians during World War II
Stalin turned down invitation to parley of Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca
By Parker LaMoore, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Unity of the Big Three has been called the key to peace. What was the origin of the U.S.-British-Russian tieup and what did it lead to? The following is the first of a series of articles on the Big Three.
WASHINGTON – Democratic Senator Claude Pepper of Florida and other Russian apologists insist that if “Big Three unity” can be restored, the key to world peace will have been found.
So it seems in order to examine the history of this relationship, in an attempt to determine what made it tick, and how it happened to fall apart.
In January 1943, when President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill were planning their historic meeting at Casablanca, Josef Stalin was invited to meet with the heads of the other Allied states.
We had been sending lend-lease supplies to Russia. But no satisfactory contact existed between western Allied commanders and the Red Army, nor had either Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Churchill ever met the head of the Russian government.
Declines invitation
Uncle Joe’s reply to the invitation was curt. He said he saw no reason for a meeting, that all the Allies had to do was to make up their minds to cross the Channel, “as you promised.”
His Fifth Columnists in the United States had implemented his desire for a Channel crossing by mass meetings urging a “second front.”
We had established a second front in North Africa at that time, were planning a third front in Italy, as all the world surmised, and were setting up a far-flung front of our own in the Pacific. But these activities were brushed aside.
That the United States was not yet prepared to invade France, and the British were unable to do so, and the possibility that a premature landing might be repelled at a heavy cost in American lives seem to have meant nothing to the American Communists, or their masters in the Kremlin.
Turn other cheek
However, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill not only ignored Stalin’s Casablanca snub, but turned the other cheek.
In the communique issued after the meeting it was stated that “Premier Stalin was cordially invited to meet the President and Prime Minister, in which case the meeting would have been held much farther to the east. He was unable to leave Russia at this time on account of the great offensive which he himself as commander-in-chief is directing.”
Other statements were issued praising the accomplishments of the Red Armies.
But with Stalin still playing hard-to-get, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill met again in August 1943, this time at Quebec, to be greeted the morning of their initial session by a demand in the Red Star, official Russian army newspaper, that the “second front” be established without further delay.
Invited in broadcast
Never during this period was there any hint from Russia that the Reds would help us in our war against Japan.
Diplomatic approaches having failed, Mr. Churchill resorted to a most unusual expedient to bring the Big Three into direct contact. In a broadcast from Quebec, he publicly invited Stalin to join him and the President for a personal conference. This was followed up by visits to Moscow by personal representatives of the two heads of state, urging such a meeting. Finally, Stalin agreed to a meeting at Teheran, a few miles from the Russian border.
This set the stage for a meeting to which can be traced many of the headaches plaguing the world today.
TOMORROW: The Tehran conference