Yalta is one of the most controversial uh events of uh the modern history what do you think happened at Yalta how would you describe the alter conference well those who were there uh and here again I would go back to Ambassador Bolan uh who knew something about Soviet American relations then and later uh those who were there believe that what went wrong at Yalta was not what was agreed to but the fact that the Russians did not care out the agreement uh agreement with regard to for example elections in Poland and that sort of thing
once it was agreed to uh they didn't even follow it out whatever now whatever the case may be what we have to understand is that making an agreement which was not self-enforcing was the mistake trusting the Russians if I may use that term that if they uh we signed an agreement with them that they would follow it in spirit and letter just as we would that was the mistake at yalda that mistake having been made it must not make again we must not make it again you don't think then that Franklin Roosevelt was operating either
under diminished physical capacity or that he was suffering from uh pro-communist or indeed uh uh communist advisers well there isn't any question about his own anti-communist ideas there as far as Franklin Roosevelt is concerned uh there however is some question with regard regard to advisers advisers who were not pro communist but advisers I would put it who were naive about the Communist maybe there were some that were pro-communist but I think the latter uh What uh uh what Lenin has referred to is the uh uh the useful idiots uh those who don't know better and
should know better that was the real problem do you discount aler H's role at as a a Roosevelt adviser at Yalta then I do not know what his role was but the fact he was there is not reassuring because there's no question but that he was a communist at that time and certainly that could have had some effect uh I would say further uh that with regard to uh Roosevelt at Yalta I talked to Winston Churchill about it and he tried to be diplomatic about it but he said there was no question and he has
written this as well but he said it very emphatically to me that uh President Roosevelt was not at his best at Yalta and what happened was that Roosevelt in effect joined with Stalin uh and supported Stalin's views against Churchill and Churchill fought a valiant but losing battle in attempting to deal with the Russians on a realistic tough-minded basis uh and that was the tragedy I am not going to judge those who were advising Roosevelt on the basis of whether they were Pro anti-communist that has nothing to do with it uh what it has something to
do with it uh but the real problem is something very different and that is and much more serious looking at today's problems and that is they were naive about uh the Russians and what they might do and that is going to be our greatest danger in the future
