An interview with Walter LaFeber on Truman's Soviet Policy:
11 days after Truman became President, the Russian foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, on his way to San Francisco and the United Nations conference, stopped in Washington to talk with Truman about what was the key issue. And that was, how the Russians were dealing with Poland. They were imposing a communist government on Poland and Truman thought this was not the way that Roosevelt and Stalin had agreed to deal with Poland at Yalta four months before.
Before Truman meets with Molotov in the White House, he calls a meeting of his top advisors and those advisors split. Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, tells Truman that he must be very, very careful in dealing with Molotov on the Polish issue because Poland is the key issue of Russian security; it's been Poland through which the Germans have attacked Russia twice in 30 years and so he warns Truman that this is an extremely sensitive issue. But there are other advisors at the table. Averill Harriman, who's just returned as US Ambassador to Moscow, tells Truman that the Soviets have not been upholding the agreements that they had made with Roosevelt and that this is the time to draw the line. .... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/filmmore/it_1.html
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