Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945
FDR still faced the threat that Hitler would hole up in the
Alps for a fanatic Armageddon. In the midst of the Roosevelt-Stalin
countercharges over Operation Sunrise, General Marshall sent the President an
estimate on April 2 that the “will to fight of these [German] troops will
depend largely on whether Hitler and his subordinate Nazi leaders, or the German
High Command will have transferred their headquarters into the ’redoubt’ area.
If Hitler does so, a fairly formidable military task requiring a considerable
number of divisions may still confront the Allies… .” Now was hardly the time
to risk the alliance, especially since the Russians had made their first
installment on their promise at Yalta to enter the war against Japan. On April
5 they broke their peace pact with the Japanese. Through a Magic decrypt it was
as if FDR were in the room in Moscow when the Soviet foreign minister, Molotov,
delivered the blow to the Japanese ambassador, Naotake Sato. Sato answered,
hopefully, “The Japanese government expects that even after the abrogation of
the treaty by the Russian government there will be no change in the peace in
the Far East from what it has been in the past.” Molotov gave a chilling
answer: “At the time when this treaty was concluded Russia was not yet at war
with Germany… . After that Japan began war with England and America which are
allies of Russia.” And, as Molotov well knew, the Americans, pursuing Project
Hula, were already well along in turning over ships and training Soviet seamen
to enter the war in the Pacific.
