Word: yalta
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...Service in 1929. State assigned him to study Russian, sent him to Moscow (along with Kennan) in the '30s. Russia fascinated Bohlen; he even became an expert balalaika player. By 1944 he was chief of Eastern European Affairs (Russia, Poland, the Baltic countries) in Washington. At Teheran and Yalta, Bohlen served as interpreter and aide for Franklin Roosevelt. He sat with F.D.R. and Averell Harriman, facing Stalin, Molotov and their interpreter, Pavlov, when the secret agreement on Manchuria was finally worked out. He subsequently became Counselor of the State Department, working closely on policy with Secretary Dean Acheson...
When Bohlen appeared early this month before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was hard pressed by Republicans. They questioned him especially about Yalta. Bohlen could have replied that he was merely an interpreter at Yalta; instead, he defended the secret deals, although he blamed the Russians for violating their terms. While the Senators pondered Bohlen's defense of past policy, Stalin died. The Administration wanted Bohlen confirmed quickly. But a strong Republican bloc refused to hurry. Last week their opposition came out into the open...
...hostility ranged in degree. Michigan's Homer Ferguson and California's William Knowland were not really happy about the nomination. Nevada's crusty Democrat, Pat McCarran, joined the GOP opposition; Bohlen's link with Yalta, he said, is "enough for me." Ohio's Robert Taft, in his role of Republican pacifier, thought the Moscow ambassadorship not important enough for a big intraparty battle. "Our Russian ambassador can't do anything. He is in a box at Moscow. All he can do is observe and report. He will not influence policy materially...
...proved a tougher hurdle. Majority Leader Robert Taft received notice from more than half of his 48 fellow Republican Senators that they would vote against the resolution unless it was "fixed up"; they wanted, at the very least, to have it made clear that they were not endorsing the Yalta or Potsdam deals. Taft, trying to compromise, threw his support behind an amendment proposed by New Jersey's Alexander Smith: "This resolution does not constitute any determination by Congress as to the validity or invalidity of any of the provisions of the said agreements or understandings." Dulles accepted...
...Yalta, over a year later, Stalin bargained for Port Arthur, Dairen and the Kuril Islands in return for a promise to enter the war against Japan. "I only want to have returned to Russia what the Japanese have taken from my country," he said. "That seems," said Franklin Roosevelt, "like a very reasonable suggestion...