BLACKMAIL AT TEHERAN
HARRISON, CHARLES YALE
BLACKMAIL AT TEHERAN By Charles Yale Harrison TEHERAN ia Um pivot for the political future of the world. Yet the record of this historic conference is bare of all comment other than the...
...recognition of the Soviet tight to...
...It seems that Germany was willing to pay well: Latvia, Esthonis and Lithuania to be incorporated into the Soviet Union, Finnish Karelia to bo ceded to Russia, and Finland to pay a war indemnity of $600,000,000...
...Stalin was the first to speak...
...Stalin's punshments for erring generals are more drastic and less public...
...Both England and the United States had repeatedly made it clear that nothing less than unconditional surrender would be acceptable...
...Consequently, along about midnight everyone was pretty well toasted...
...Roosevelt's smile vanished, Churchill's eyes looked like the Channel on a nasty morning...
...T*HE British, American and Russian leaders and their staffs were gathered at dinner, in Teheran—at a convivial, noisy dinner which lasted until well past midnight and at which toasts were drunk, Russian fashion, to the number of several score...
...What then, happened at Teheran...
...Endless courses, endless bottles of vodka, whisky and champagne, more than a hundred and twenty-five toasts: to "my fighting friend, Churchill," to the heroes of Stalingrad, to the RAF, "to my good friend, President Roosevelt," to American lend-lease, to .international collaboration...
...StALIN'S bargaining device was not magnificent, but it wan war...
...What happened at Teheran...
...It became the tjerdttick by which to measure pro-Soviet feeling...
...he is, as I have said, an active, practicing democrat devoted to the difficult task of preserving th* democracy and independence of his country against heavy odds...
...Stalin said, "I have it put upon the most reliable information that the representatives of both Greet Britain and the United States recently have been conducting negotiation* with the enemy with a view to determining the possible basis of a separate peace...
...the round-the-clock saturation bombings of Hitler's war potential were under way before Teheran...
...of the first fall-length biography of Clarence Darrew...
...he waa prepared U guispt the Anglo-American declaration* that no press overtures had been made to the enemy...
...He is a liberal of long standing, highly respected by our Stale Department, unusually reliable...
...Ho ie the author of the best-¦ selling General* Die fa AW, a reahotie war novel...
...The Anglo-American determination to amash Germany was reached before Teheran...
...The ceases nf war, now as in Use past, are determined Isrgely by economic and geographical cosmideratioas sad if the economic and geographical rofuirementa *f a country can be realised by negotiation, it »«His bc insanity to continue the war...
...Once again it was obvious to every, on* that only patience was needed, only the spirit ef conciliation...
...Since November, 1943, not one of the major participants has uttered a word, however innocuous, concerning the conference...
...In the main, it was a defeat fur Churchill, who had not come to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire...
...In sny case, it was a ' lively, rowdy, friendly gathering...
...There was a paralyzed silence for a few moments...
...charts* Tale Manama) enjoys a isaiaMifllli reputation aa a noveiiat, social aatfclm, asm political comments tor...
...When the conferees and their staffs adjourned for a few hours' sleep before getting down to cases, everyone was imbued, among other things, with a feeling of high optimism...
...But," he went en to soy," banquets and dinner parties are one thing and the realities ef international polities are something else again...
...A* one American editorial writer taii: "It tolrei everything or it So a colossal fraud...
...The, first plenary session of the conference was scheduled to take place the following morning...
...As you know, our legation had a very special interest in what occurred there...
...Stalin's diplomatic coup was the shadow that fell across the remaining sessions of the conference...
...Eastern Poland to be reded on a linn parallel to th* city of I.wow...
...but Stalin was now in a stern mood and replied stiffly, almost curtly...
...The lesser fry merely looked hurt...
...an antifascist with the calibre and moral stature of, let us say, Walter Nash or Gaetano Salvemini...
...and there can be no doubt that it waa enormously successful...
...One hundred and twenty-five toasts in vodka and champagne is something to marvel at, even if you sit every second one out and slip every third drink into the cuspidor...
...He continued in sn even politer silence...
...there were his terms, gentlemen, take them or leave them...
...This time he spoke at considerable length, waving the interpreter aside until ha had finished...
...the Roose-veltian doctrine calling for unconditional lurrender was announced befer* Teheran, it was aa a political and not a military conference that Teheran became the symbol before which all devout Communists snd their fellow-travelers genuflect (hiee the story broke, •we wa* either for or against Teheran...
...He to new at work on a novel to be published shortly by Henry Holt A Co...
...It was the shadow that moved westward over the Polish border, that chilled tbe hearts of young Polish flyers in the RAF...
...Surely, Marshal Stalin was the victim of a monstrous lie, no doubt circulated by the enemy himself...
...It was the shadow that fell across Mikhailovitch fighting in the hills of Yugoslavia, over the attempts now already begun in the underground to rebuild the free, democratic trad* unions of Europe, over the belief of millions everywhere that this war was a crusade and not an unprincipled struggle for naked power...
...If my friend's story is pure fiction, it is fiction of a high order, worthy of Voltaire or Tolstoi...
...Gentlemen, here are the terms which have been offered to us by the enemy...
...The Soviet \ nun has no intention of being idealistic when its ei-ietence is at stake...
...What has nevertheless emerged from Teheran is the knowledge that Stalin demanded and received a down payment from the United States...
...However, a few minutes later, when Stalin and his staff entered the conference room, it was obvious that something had gone wrong...
...Hut if eo, how are we to account for the fact that it ie completely in character, that it ha* been borne out by every inter-Allied diplomatic and political development ef the latt *ix monthsf Echoes of it were heard recently in the Forrest Dsvis article in the Saint day Evening Pott, snd it is no secret that Davis is close to the White House...
...I would accept his word on any question, no matter what was involved...
...BLACKMAIL AT TEHERAN By Charles Yale Harrison TEHERAN ia Um pivot for the political future of the world...
...And etill no actual fact* had been revealed...
...Gentlemen...
...and nf other books, the ascot recent of which ia Jfosf Me em the Berth****, a bilnrton* navel satirising th* Communist* and their total!-taria* HberaJ fettow-travelers...
...And on the basis of information and reports received from other diplomatic circles, we are convinced that Teheran was far from being a colossal fraud...
...This waa the dinner party at which Stalin was said to have crowned one of his generals, guilty of an indiscretion, over the head with a vodka bottle...
...The leaders of the world were in great shape...
...After the opening formalities had been concluded— the official photographs taken, the protocol speeches made—the first plenary session got down to business...
...A few days ago I was discussing this question with n friend, a Washington diplomat who represents one of the smaller but more democratic European countries...
...mentally immoral ia attempting to discover sn what terms the enemy might bo induced t* re*, etude a peace...
...eoViai relief arm ef the American Federation ef Labor, ef which Matthew Well ia president...
...He remarked upon the atmosphere of good-will and amity evident at the dinner party of the previous evening...
...What follows is substantially his story as related to me...
...When the democratic Allies had recovered from their initial shock, they indignantly proceeded to deny the Russian accusations...
...Throughout it all the language of protocol was strictly observed: His Msjesty's Government hastens to assure Marshal Stalin . . . the President solemnly disclaims all knowledge of any such negotiations . . . without intending to cast aspersions on the efficiency of the Soviet secret service, might it not be possible that . . . And so on for more than an hour...
...I believe him implicitly, and yet there is always the possibility that his story is apocryphal, ss so many diplomatic tales are in time of wsr...
...Yet here was England's balance of power on the continent being destroyed, her Asiatic possessions threatened, her existence as sn empire jeopardized...
...It was eloquent testimony to what a few cases of vodka and champagne can do when amiable, reasonable people are really determined to arrive at an understanding...
...that sort nf thing ia permissible in a journalist or a liberal histories, but in a statesman it ia sheer irresponsibility...
...pansion in Asia...
...Aetaslly," he said, "there ia nothing f«ad...
...Harrises th new director nf public relations i for the Laker League for Human Bights...
...Teheran waa essentially a political and not a military conference...
...But Stalin was not quite through...
...Roosevelt smiled charmingly as the Russian marshal strode to his place, and Churchill grunted a bluff, hearty good morning...
...We know that the mere mention of Teheran is sufficient to send the Communists into transports of zealous delight We know that both Roosevelt and Churchill are strangely silent and act like men who are trying to forget...
...His cards were on th* table...
...finally, Stalin waa convinced...
...There was give and take, of course, but everyone knew that the course of the conference hsd been irrevocably set...
...The outraged denials continued in an atmosphere of complete unreality, made still more farcical by the cumbersome business of waiting for Anglo-American denials to be interpreted into Russian...
...It was the shadow that was seen on the faces of Churchill and Roosevelt, photographed on the steps of the .Soviet Embassy at Teheran...
...My friends is not a diplomat in the striped pants tradition...
...In the face of this united determination, to suggest that any of the United Nations were negotiating a separate peace was unthinkable...
...It looked fine indeed for international collaboration, postwar planning, inter-Allied unity and all the other big words coined for the benefit of the little people...
...The eitect of this declaration, after it had been rendered into English, was as though someone had tossed a hand grenade into the conference room...
...Nations do not fight because or a clash of Meals glee...
...British and American bombers were at this moment blasting the German war industries into a state of helplessness...
...How much of a defeat it was for Roosevelt remains to be seen...
...Where Molotov, Hull and Eden had failed, Bacchus had triumphed...
...Everyone sighed with relief...
...The next morning the Americans snd British were in their places bright snd early, enormously pleased with the atmosphere of camaraderie that had prevailed the night before...
...Soviet acr*ss t« Dardanelles...
...Slander, according to my informant...
...It was the sternest kind of reality...
...Tito's regime to Ik recognized as de jure in Yugoslavia...
...Yet the record of this historic conference is bare of all comment other than the platitudinous joint statement issued only after Russia officially revealed that tht meeting had taken place...
...Soviet spheres of influence in Ore***, Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 25
