It is doubted that Roosevelt could have preserved the Grand Alliance any better than Truman. Although Truman was less experienced in foreign policy than Roosevelt, the failure to handle this situation did not come from the American president, but from Stalin’s determination to follow up his plans no matter what. Roosevelt was already very ill at Yalta and could not keep up with Stalin even in theory. The problem of democratic elections in Eastern Europe remained unresolved. Roosevelt hoped to satisfy Stalin’s demands through the UN, but even if Roosevelt had lived, the UN was established too late to do anything. When the Yalta Conference occurred, Poland was already occupied and Stalin was speeding up the “Sovietization” of the Eastern European countries. During the so-called free elections held in Eastern Europe, the observers sent by the Western nations witnessed powerlessly what was happening. The Allies had no resources anymore to start a new war with a Russia that occupied half of Europe and arrived in Berlin before them. Europe was crushed by four years of war, while America was devastated by a war on two fronts and did not have anymore the resources to pursue a new conflict with more than uncertain outcomes. With the Bolsheviks’ clear ideological objective to world widely export the socialist revolution, neither Roosevelt nor anyone else would have been able to stop Stalin, hence the development of the Cold War.
Henretta, James A, and David Brody. “America: A Concise History, Volume II: Since 1877.” 4th ed., Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2010, 769
