The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-24

From the days lmmedlately all ter the last war. when Churchill spurred the sending of Allied troops to Archangel and Siberia to block the Bolsheviks. they have always disliked him. Even when Wendell Willkie dined in the Kremlin. Stalin rose and launched a violent attack against Chur- ill for taking Lend-Lease planes off ships destined for Russia when those ships stopped in Scotland.
 Knowing how Churchill encour- aged Czarist admirals and gen. erals to fight against them in the early struggling days of the So- viet. and how even recently Churchill remarked, What will stand as protection between the white cliffs of Dover and the white snows of Russia?", it is easy to understand why Stalin is sometimes almost savage in the notes he sends to Churchill.
 With Franklin Roosevelt alive, the Russians had a friendly third party whom they liked and trusted. to act as mediator between Stalin and Churchill. Once or twice, es- pecially at Teheran, the two men were literally at each others throat before Roosevelt stepped in.
 But today, with Roosevelt dead, Stalin suddenly finds himself face to face with the man he distrusts and dealing with a new American President whom he doesn't know. but who is generally considered under the influence of his Russian State Department.
 This in itself undoubtedly is one important reason for Russian suspicion and their throwing of monkey -Wrenches.
 BRITISH VS.
 RUSSIAN SPHERES
 Furthermore, all this has hap pened just at time when the British had already carved out their sphare of influence in Eu- rope and just as the Russians were about to carve out and en- joy theirs. With the British al- ready having their complete say i'll Greece, Belgium. and Italy un- der U. s. blessing, the Russians HOW see a new U. s. President stepping in to tell them they can not have the same free hand en- joyed by the British.
 The background to all this is important. It dates back to ROOsevelt's CasabIanca meeting with Churchill in January 1943. when the late President tacitly agreed that Britain was to make all political and economic de- cisiOns from the Mediterranean and the Near Eastern war theaters. This was stretched to mean that all Lend-Lease in this area was distributed by the British, that UNRRA worked un- der British direction, that no U. s. military men could go inside Greece or Yugoslavia with out British OK.
 Roosevelt lived to regret this, especially when he saw American tanks manned by the British fir ing on civilians in the streets of Athens. In fact, Athens was fresh in his memory when he left for his second meeting with Chur- chill and Stalin at Yalta.
 WILSON'S TROUBLES
 At CaSablanca, Roosevelt had believed it wiser for the United States to keep out of European politics. He was always worried about the trouble his old chief Woodrow Wilson experienced over Plume and the turbulent details of European controversies
 So RoOsevelt's first decision was to leave European politics to the British. But later, when he saw what happened in Greece, Belgium and Italy, he journcyed to Yalta determined
 that the United States must play it's part In guaranteeing the Four Freedoms to the lib- makes no difference in matters o1