Ulterior motive is everything.

A good example of the value of altruism when it has carefully thought thru objectives and actions.

I'm not disagreeing with you about Stalin's ambitions. What I'm pointing out - hypothetically - is that had Roosevelt not died and Churchill been replaced, the conversations about the final dispositions of the Eastern European nations might have gone very differently. No guarantees.

Churchill's comments about the entire matter are in his six-volume work covering the entirety of WW II. The annexation of Poland happened when Russia delayed its entrance into Warsaw. The city's defenders, seeing the advancing Russians, rose up, expecting the Russians to continue to advance and reach the city in the next day. Instead, the Russians inexplicably halted - despite pleas from Churchill - allowing the remaining German forces to quell the rebellion. Half the city died and the pro-democratic leaders who weren't killed in the fighting were actually executed by the Russians. That left only pro-Communists in the capital of Poland. Churchill - and a following Roosevelt - insisted on democratic elections, but after the massacre, they knew that Poland would go Communist. Russia installed a vassal state. Similarly, Stalin worked to install Tito in Czechoslovakia at the expense of other pro-Western groups. Russia was only forestalled in Greece because Churchill sent troops in to control Athens and stop the rioting of the pro-Communist forces. The Russian rampage through Eastern Germany was brutal: nearly anyone found by the Red Army was executed and their homes pillaged by the Russian invaders.

All this aside, however, Churchill had been pressing for a full disposition of the nations of Europe to return back to their original borders once the Allies landed in Italy. Yes, at Yalta Roosevelt failed to support Churchill in pressing for a return of Polish borders. (We can always criticize in hindsight.) Churchill was prescient in the matter, Roosevelt was more uncertain and so delayed a final arbitration until later on. The problem was that Roosevelt died before that final arbitration could be held and the new British Prime Minister was Labour Party - the same pacifist who had engineered the failed treaties and agreements between WW I and WW II. The new British leadership was only concerned about pulling British forces back to England and worrying about Indian independence (a leftover issue from before the War) than trying to maintain stable democracies in the face of communism, and so Stalin was never confronted.

Truman was advised by none other than General Patton that they shouldn't allow the Russians to maintain their control over everything East of Berlin. Patton urged a direct military confrontation with the Red Army if they wouldn't go back to their homeland. Eisenhower was more diplomatic, but he, too, had grave concerns about allowing the Russians to stay. Truman caved to pressures back home and concentrated on the necessary victory over the Japanese, but in so doing, he delayed until Russia had strengthened their grip and solidified their presence - executing anyone native who dared speak against them.

You are welcome to criticize Roosevelt for his missteps (I'm certainly not a policy supporter), but to me Truman had a chance and let it slip through his fingers not once, but twice. One resulted in a brutal communist regime and the executions of millions over the next 40+ years. The other resulted in another brutal communist regime, the execution of tens of millions, and a war that cost millions more and remains unresolved to this day. I speculate that the relationships forged through three years of war - especially when backed by the military might - would have been enough to sway Stalin. We will never know, however.

Me dino has a cheap Spanish made 44-cal ball and powder 1851 Navy Colt replica that used to shoot.
The hammer is stuck. Had it repaired once but the hammer stuck again after about 36 more shots,
Now its been on a display stand for about 20 years later.
It does not count as one of my six guns, which are all modern.

Feeding predators with the old, lame, sick and stupid is nature's way of improving the overall health of a species.

My original question still stands. Why do you think Stalin would have had the least desire to retreat back behind Poland? (Assuming his buddy Roosevelt even wanted him to.)

Roosevelt sold out Poland at the Yalta conference. Roosevelt, not Truman. Stalin got to keep the vast portion of Poland he had acquired and annexed in his joint invasion and dismemberment of that country with Hitler. Under Stalin’s orders, hundreds of thousands of Poles were either murdered, subjected to atrocities or uprooted and deported to Siberia and elsewhere in Russia prior to the Yalta conference. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_...

It was Roosevelt’s “inferior quality of statesmanship” that officially abandoned eastern Europe to the tender mercies of the Russians before Truman even took office.

I was around 14 years of age vacationing with family in the Smoky Mountains in a station wagon of the 60s when I saw an adult idiot with a
ready camera walk up to a mama bear with her cubs.
Me a young dino already knew you don't go near wild animals with babies.
The idiot learned that when mama bear took a front paw swipe that barely missed spilling his guts.
The bear in hot pursuit, the idiot dove through the door window of his car while family members screamed inside.
Someone rolled up the window before the bear could follow the idiot. The bear stood peering in through that window for a moment.
Then mama bear decided to whack the camera around, smashing it to bits.
Mama Bear 1~Idiot 0.

I've got a Sheld 40. My friends and I named it "little b*tch"

I agree. Haha...gun with no name...

I was also thinking of the various people who, regarding wild animals as friends (because they are on cartoons), have been mauled and/or killed by them.

I carry a Glock 21, with 230 grain .45 ACP.
My nephew dubbed my "Hand Cannon". :-)
One of these days I'm going to have that etched on it.
What I love about him was that he was the only one who didn't say "that's a big gun for a girl"

Hold it. I enjoyed Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and still am an Objectivist.

2 more Darwin Award winners!
Thanks for taking yourselves out of the gene pool.

You and bsmith51 have that right. We need a dose of GI Joe.

Such was his hope to change.

Please re-read my comments. Churchill and Roosevelt had personal relationships with Stalin which neither Truman nor Attlee had. In my opinion, the lack of those relationships - and the inferior quality of statesmanship in Truman and Attlee - pretty much left Stalin to dictate terms with none to oppose him.

Churchill was vehemently anti-communist: see his actions to preserve Greece near the end of WW II and his denunciation of Russian influence and treachery in Poland and the Slav republics along with his own writings on the subject. Roosevelt was no communist, neither was he a communist sympathizer - even though his political tendencies ran to moderate authoritarianism and progressivism. Roosevelt listened to Churchill and was not blind to the ambition of Stalin, he just didn't have the authoritarian control of the US like Churchill did so as to dictate policy. Not only was there a sizable contingent of pacifists remaining in the US Congress, there was also a growing body of communists - a body which McCarthy began to expose shortly afterward. And those objectors were primarily in his own (meaning the Democratic) political party. Truman didn't have the political clout to challenge them.

and "Transform America" He did it by turning more blacks into racists.....and created more "useful tools."

Not always. He didn't lie when he said he want to bankrupt coal companies.
And when the Obamanation told Joe the Plumber he wanted to spread the wealth around, the media came to the deflective rescue by finding dirt on the only one of the two who wasn't running for president.
The reaction to that last bit of truth telling me dino found to be utterly fascinating.

Why do you think Stalin would have had the least desire to retreat back behind Poland? (Assuming his buddy Roosevelt even wanted him to)

If his lips moved, he was lying.....

Don't forget Captain Planet.

But during his wonderful beloved by the media two-term scandal-free presidency, The Anointed One said Islam is the religion of peace.

That is very generous of you, chad. You are a kind man.

I am reminded of the saying "you can choose to ignore reality, but you can't choose to ignore
the consequences of ignoring reality".

This is interesting, but I'd like a little more on why you think the bombs were not the primary emphasis for the final unconditional surrender of the Japanese. My understanding is that the US was more interested in avoiding an invasion of mainland Japan and the US casualties such an assault would entail. The atomic bomb provided a way not only to devastate entire cities but also to cow the population into calling for surrender. Russian involvement in the Eastern Theatre against Japan was an utter farce up until the US threatened mainland Japan itself. Afraid of being left out, Stalin then began offering to help on that front - long after it had already been decided. England would have helped if Churchill had not been replaced immediately following V-E day.

Truman was a disappointment - thrust into the most critical point in the war when he was ill-prepared. Despite Roosevelt's progressive tendencies, he had a good relationship with Stalin and he and Churchill could have talked Stalin into retreating back behind Poland with far greater success than Truman and Clement Attlee (Churchill's replacement). It was Truman's fecklessness which allowed Russia to establish the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe (combined with Great Britain's ouster of Churchill). Truman had an incredibly strong hand bolstered by an immediate and trained military presence of overwhelming US forces and threw in the towel. This weakness was seen by the Chinese in the East in the civil war between Mao and the Communists and Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists when Truman failed to support the Nationalists - and then into North Korea.