I finished reading my latest book (see links on right) as I lay around all weekend recovering from my back problems. Here is a quick mini-review:
Very readable, well researched summary of the critical year 1945. Dallas fills in the Political, and Economic strategies in play by the major powers (UK, US, & USSR, along with France, Germany, and what is left of Poland) along with the usual Military history. It makes for fascinating reading, especially for those of us brought up in the USA. Much that is left out of Military histories and the mythology we are accustomed to here in the US are explored: De Gaulle and the French political (Vichy/the Communists) situation. The broad economic and political maneuvers by the US, UK, & USSR. The extent to which the USSR had no illusions as to the “alliance” with the western powers, and how well they were ahead of “us” in terms of embedding intelligence operatives into the foreign governments of all their “enemies” (From Germany to the US).
I always wondered how, in the grand “war councils” between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin the subject of the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 was never discussed. This book answers that and more.
The brief window of time in 1990 when the Soviet archives were opened for western view for the first time has produced a fantastic opportunity for historians to fill in sections of the 20th Century’s jigsaw puzzle. This book benefits from that data significantly. If you are at all interested in history, I suggest you read it.