What Bush Got Wrong about Yalta

David Greenberg has written a solid essay in response to the president's recent criticism of the Yalta agreement. What is comes down to is realpolitik. The Soviets by February 1945 had occupied most of Eastern Europe. There were only two realistic options: get Stalin to agree to elections with the promise of allowing self-determination, or a massive escalation of the war to continue on to Moscow. FDR chose the former.

Surely the president would not have preferred another quarter million dead Americans on a drive against the Soviets. And need anyone be reminded about the fate of other nations who had tried to conquer Russia?