Stalin was very interested in getting the big loan that was hinted at in 1945.
USSR was a wasteland and rebuilding with only internal resources was not so easy.
Werth is also saying that although Stalin would face resistance, he would have been able to get acceptance through.
However, the Soviet fear of being forced into concessions based on the loan made it impossible. LL was cancelled immediately by Truman and that caused that food stuff could not get imported from USA. It was not a matter of feeding some 10 million soldiers. it was a matter of the general population. Of course Stalin et al were not greatly happy about that.
Now let us imagine that LL is not stopped and that USSR does get its huge reconstruction loan. It is used for agricultural machinery, fertilizer, livestock and those things. As Werth points out that was the rationale behind the loan.
Would USSR be less confrontational? what would the term sheet likely say?
Would cold war still go ahead as we know it? what about the Soviet bomb?
USSR was a wasteland and rebuilding with only internal resources was not so easy.
Werth is also saying that although Stalin would face resistance, he would have been able to get acceptance through.
However, the Soviet fear of being forced into concessions based on the loan made it impossible. LL was cancelled immediately by Truman and that caused that food stuff could not get imported from USA. It was not a matter of feeding some 10 million soldiers. it was a matter of the general population. Of course Stalin et al were not greatly happy about that.
Now let us imagine that LL is not stopped and that USSR does get its huge reconstruction loan. It is used for agricultural machinery, fertilizer, livestock and those things. As Werth points out that was the rationale behind the loan.
Would USSR be less confrontational? what would the term sheet likely say?
Would cold war still go ahead as we know it? what about the Soviet bomb?