YALTA REVISITED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am little tired of seeing Professor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. play the political stockmarket by screaming every time anybody mentions the word Yalta.

Do you remember FDR coming back home from his little gambol on the shores of the Black Sea to tell us what a magnificent job he had done dealing with Stalin? You might check his speech today. Of course, for many politicians Yalta remains a haunting memory, a kind of ubiquitous genie that just won't go back to fairyland... Do you remember how the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Bull, was bypassed and ignored and how that very special group of experts on world problems and everything size decided they were the men to settle the fate of mankind for all time to come. They went out to Yalta and greeted the Barbarian and talked about democracy and told him that they could make a deal at the expense of various other parties who were not present. They betrayed our Allies and carved up the map of Europe in total disregard of the desires of the populations involved and then came home to inform us that the day of spheres of influence were over!

But the Second World War was still not over. The Polish Second Corps, for example, was fighting the Nazi armies in Italy, where, very shortly, it was to play a key role in breaking the Gothic Line, and all over Europe there were people who fought and died for the very things we ourselves were fighting for. But all that was overlooked. The only people who counted were in that little clique that surrounded a dying man who liked Falla...

So now we have all the Yalta-lovers telling us that it is they who were the champions of the Europeans all along and they feel very strongly that nothing should be done to hurt American prestige in Europe. Of course, we didn't hear them say that when our Government was forcibly repatriating hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Soviet paradise as late as 1948. Yes, 1948, when every "illegal border crosser" was arrested and turned over to the Soviet authorities within 48 hours.... But I believe the American people should recall what was the morality, intelligence and intellectual honesty of the tinhorn crowd that sold them a bill of goods such a short time ago. And I hope we never forget... Perhaps if Professor Schlesinger were to expose himself to the common sense of the electorate for a change he might find that you can't fool the people all the time. But then, I don't suppose that is as dramatic as trying to organize things from the backroom. William E. W. Gowen '52