The Valkyrie Option

by Markus Reichardt

  “Mr President, my cabinet and I have debated this at great length and we believe that Germany in its present state, with its stated willingness to accept surrender on pretty much our terms, no longer represents a present threat to the interests of the United Kingdom, nor for that matter to the interests of the United States. I must reiterate the reality that our country has been at war two years longer than yours and our people are exhausted, our manpower spent. If we were to destroy and parcel up Germany, force her unconditional surrender and question her right to survival as a nation, we would create a vacuum in Europe that would make the Soviet Union become the dominant power in Europe. A dominant power we would no longer be able to contain because it would have been spent needlessly trying to crush Germany. A power so dominant so as to exclude everyone’s else as well as their interests. You know how they have challenged us in Greece, in Yugoslavia, countries which traditionally have not fallen within their sphere of interest.”

  “Winston, spheres of influence are old world power politics which will be swept aside by the new world order of the United Nations. The time for such colonial concepts or colonies themselves is over. The United Nations will oversee the end of colonial empires which oppress the peoples of the world. In our life time self-determination of some form or another will be brought to all nations of this planet.” It was a phrase straight from his original musings with Eleanor before she had turned her back on his realist politics, but he still fervently felt the power of the statement. America would use her power to change the world.

  Churchill would later record that this sentence more than any other was at the heart of the break.

  “I must disagree, Mr President, about objectives. Lofty goals about the destiny of mankind are desirable, even admirable and desirable in the long-term but currently not compatible with the survival of the United Kingdom and her status as one of the Great Powers of the planet. And therefore I must as present Prime Minister of Her Majesty’s Government do everything in my power to resist the weakening of our role. Mr President, you know yourself the extent of the sacrifices we have made to stop Hitler’s aggression, we have bled and the peoples of our Commonwealth have bled with us. You of all people know just how deeply we have mortgaged our economy and our economic future to sustain this epic struggle. We are today a nation of near beggars due to our expenditure on the conflict against Hitler and Japan across the globe. In the years to come we will need the economic links to our Dominions, and imperial possessions, the prosperity that only trade can bring. We will need to trade and do business with a strong, free Europe that rebuilds to pay our debts and our way. We cannot do that if Joseph Stalin is master of continental Europe, shackled by a new form of colonialism, Bolshevik oppression. A continental Europe on which Stalin, nominally our ally is not allowing the self-determination of many nations.”

  He paused for effect carefully considering his words. ”And now when we stand at the doorstep of peace, I see a senior member of your administration, a man who has previously presented rather fanciful and hateful plans about a post-war Europe, is proposing to bankrupt us and push us into the abyss for reasons that sound worryingly like something out of a Stalinist show trial. We have deviated, we must be punished appears to be the theme of Mr Morgenthau’s policy. Mr President, I must ask, man to man is it yours?”

  Sensing the iron in the other man’s voice, the president recovered some of his charming self. “Winston look if this is all about money, we can talk about some write-offs, better terms, whatever. It’s just money. The United Nations is a bigger thing. Let me take care of Morgenthau.”

  Churchill was not to be denied “America will be insulated by the Atlantic from any immediate threat that may emanate from a new Europe. Economically you treat South America like a colony no matter what the political context, this together with the size of your nation gives you the kind of market that will isolate you from the costs of war, but do not be deceived; if we accept Joseph Stalin’s demands for control of the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Yugoslavia then we are changing the war aims to replacing the threat once posed by Hitler with that posed by Stalin. The Russians might not come for us in the next few years but a Russia dominating the resources and brainpower of Europe, the cradle of modern civilization, threatens our freedom and that of the people of Poland, France, the Scandinavian countries, Greece, and Holland just as Hitler did.

  If you allow the Morgenthau memorandum to go proceed we will be beggars before the decade is out and Stalin and chaos will fill the vacuum left by the Empire. ”

  “Winston we’ve just got to resolve this. So let’s go back to basics; Germany is the enemy, they started the war. They ..”

  “No Mr president,” Churchill cut in, “a defeated Germany without Hitler, who has not fired a shot in anger against our forces for two months, is no longer a clear enemy from whom we force unconditional surrender, especially not if it accepts defeat and seeks terms that may be almost as good. It is just not in our interests to expend further blood and treasure in the pursuit of the goal of unconditional surrender which gives us nothing and may even harm our interests in that it will leave us more vulnerable in the face of the next enemy. Especially not when our creditor nation says that every additional pound we spend in pursuing this issue will cost us more dearly than before. Right now we have an opportunity to remould a potential adversary and historically the key power in central Europe into a more constructive force for peace and stability in Europe for generations to come. The current administration has basically accepted the need for new elections under our – that is allied – supervision. We have the chance to remould this nation into something new. Hitler and his clique were the enemy, the new crowd is putting them on trial. …”

  “They are a militarist nation, it’s only a matter of time before they revert to their natural expansionism. Winston, can’t you see that? Can we at least the moment agree on the occupation of Germany by the alliance, the three of us? “

  “The four of us, Mr President, love him or hate him and we may agree here, France has a place at that table. After all we are talking about temporary occupation of a nation.”

  “Well alright give that self-important French peacock a slice of Germany, but a damn small one!”

  “The next question we must then address is the joint occupation of Poland, again by the four nations so that free and fair elections can be held in due course. “

  “Winston, the Poles have really got Uncle Joe’s goat…”

  “They were the country over whose sovereignty this conflict got started, Mr President. I like you have my doubts about their ability to act maturely occasionally but in the final analysis we cannot deny an allied nation the democratic future we would choose for a defeated enemy.”

  “Uncle Joe is not going to like it and as a matter of fact neither do I. Those Poles chose to join the Germans. Right now the exile crowd you are hosting is as good as on the side of the enemy.”

  “In the defence of their homeland from another occupying power and after they became privy to the Teheran discussions regarding their borders. “

  “Well it wasn’t me who told them, …”the President let that one hang in the air for a second while Churchill quietly fumed. “Anyway if we insist on participating in the occupation and administration of Poland Joe Stalin will have a fit. He needs Poland as a protective buffer against the threat of a resurgent Germany and listening to your ideas it sounds like he’s going to need it soon.”

  “Mr President, my cabinet and I feel very strongly that we went to war to preserve the territorial integrity of Poland and to rid the world of threat of Hitler’s madness. Joseph Stalin is already carving at Poland’s borders along the lines that he agreed with Hitler. You do remember that he for a while was Hitler’s accomplice in the destruction of Poland and her liberty. He also disputes the right of the Baltic nations to determine their own destiny. Now he’s got ideas for Germany’s borders as well. If we do not oppose his effort, and m
y Government is stressing that it means diplomatic and not military means, then we will see a Europe burnt out by war and dominated by an undemocratic system. This is the same reason that we need to push him for a multi-party system in Hungary, Yugoslavia and why we need to insist on the re-creation of Czechoslovakia….”

  It went on for another twenty minutes then both men felt that they could say no more without endangering their friendship. Before the ended their call, Churchill, after a pause told Roosevelt about the impending visit of Lindemann and the explosive message he carried. For once the President, no economist, was silent. Churchill for his part pressed the point. “Mr President our Treasury men could not tell the two notes apart without help from the Germans. I suggest that there is a real risk that are already thousands if not millions of dollars circulating that were not printed by your administration.” Roosevelt was silent, he could not grasp it, although his mind told him it was big. There was rage and a sense of doom. They ended the call with a reiteration of some of the small points on which they had managed to agree and the intention to speak or meet again soon, preferably before they met Stalin.

  When Roosevelt finally put down the receiver he leaned forward exhausted, his head hurt his vision blurring. A few deep breaths cleared his vision but the headache remained. What Churchill was arguing was almost exactly what he was being pressured to do by the likes of LaGuardia and the various Eastern European American associations that had come trundling through the door in the past few days. Even the loyal Leahy, Hopkins and General Marshall were beginning to make similar noises. And damn it Stalin was not helping. After all the United States had given Russia, thousands of trucks, planes, ships tanks war material to equip nearly 85 divisions, food when their supply was thin. He had ignored his advisors even quarrelled with the faithful Harry and given Stalin Poland. And what had that idiot done overreacted and shed blood of men wearing British uniforms. If Stalin lost his temper like this again, the United Nations could still flounder because too many other Europeans would fear dealing with him. Damn it this was not right, he had given Joe so much and yet the Russian still had the power to hold his dream hostage, possibly kill it. He reached for a pen, then let his hand drop without clasping it. Churchill had insisted over and over again that Stalin only respected strength and that only unity between the US and Britain would hold him to his agreements. Had he been right?

  But all of this would not matter if the German threat to the US currency was real. Damn it. The US might be the largest economy, the most powerful nation on the planet at the moment but if word of this got out. Even if it was not true, there would be panic, possibly revolution. Damn Germans. Doubt flooded FDR’s mind. The room was quiet, he had never felt so alone. His chest hurt badly. The room turned black.

  26th November

  The Kremlin

  Moscow

  “These matters you raise are isolated incidents.” Stalin had not offered his Yugoslav visitor a seat. He had no time for this.

  Milovan Djilas, Tito’s diminutive lieutenant in charge of propaganda and the press, stood his ground, although he knew that people had disappeared into the Lubyanka for lesser offences. Faithful to his mandate he continued his message from Marshall Tito. “There are so many serious incidents perpetrated by individuals and groups of Red Army soldiers on civilians and members of the Yugoslav military that this has become a political problem for the Communist Party of Yugoslavia….”Stalin had not interrupted him, which Djilas took as a good sign.” There have been 1219 rapes including 111 murders and over a 1000 cases of looting – figures which are not insignificant given the Red Army only operates in the northeastern part of Yugoslavia.”

  “How dare you question the honour of the Red Army.” Stalin’s words came down like a hammer. “Things that happen in the fog of war. How can you know that many of these acts were not perpetrated by the fascists or their allies.”

  “Comrade Stalin, these incidents relate to the period since the departure of the fascists.”

  “In many of these incidents I am informed the Red Army soldiers have acted in self-defence. You are after all spying on our representatives in Belgrade and meeting with the British, even accepting weapons from them. This is deviationism along the lines of the reactionaries in Warsaw who allied themselves with the German militarist clique. Is that the course of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.?” Stalin was unaccustomed to be talked back at so his response was to attack. Even more than this talking back Stalin was infuriated by Tito’s increasingly independent line. He had sent out what he believed were clear warnings over the past weeks. He had even held his temper when he found out that the Yugoslavs had met with the British; face to face at the highest level. The Yugoslav leader had not cleared his meeting with Churchill with Moscow. Even worse, Rankovic’s Department for the Protection of the People (OZNa) although modelled on the MVD, operated virtually independent of it and blocked most attempts to infiltrate the Yugoslav leadership on the part of the Russian secret police. Without insiders to reign in independent thinking, the Soviet leader lacked the means to control the powerful brew coming together in the KPJ, Tito’s own version of revolutionary purity and nationalist fervour. It was clear he had underestimated Tito and would have to find other ways to bend Yugoslavia’s leaders to his will. But it was too early to make a break. Better to dismiss the whole matter.

  “You may go. I regard the matter as closed.”

  Djilas was dumbfounded. “Yes Comrade was all he could utter before being shunting out by one of Stalin’s guards.

  As Djilas headed back to Belgrade, Stalin made a fateful decision. Until the conflict with Germany was settled, he lacked the manpower to subdue the partisans. In any case it would look bad if there was a conflict between Communist movements. He had dealt with such problems before, he would do so again. That evening Beria received a note instructing him to redouble his efforts to infiltrate the leadership of the Yugoslav Party and to seek out people other than Tito capable of running the country. Beria understood exactly what his boss wanted. By the time Djilas landed in Belgrade, TASS had released a blistering statement;

  Red Army troops operating in Yugoslavia in support of our fraternal

  brothers of the KPJ and the Yugoslav Liberation Army in the

  suppression of counter-revolutionary activity in the region of

  Belgrade have been forced to fire upon Yugoslavs in self-defence.

  While the actions of the Red Army were necessary for the defence

  of the goals of the revolutionary future of Yugoslavia, malicious

  claims have been spread by counter-revolutionaries concerning

  this and other alleged incidents. Those spreading these malicious

  rumours designed to drive a wedge between the glorious Red

  Army and the Yugoslav liberation movement have allied themselves

  with the forces of reaction. Tito, Kardelj, Djilas and Rankovic

  are entirely to blame for the present situation. They get their

  methods from the arsenal of Troskyism. Their policy in town and

  country is wrong. Such a shameful, purely Turkish-style terrorist

  regime is intolerable in a Communist Party. … Such a regime

  must be got rid of. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia will

  have the honour of carrying out this honourable task.”[98]

  30th November 1944,

  Berlin

  The Stauffenberg’s apartment

  School atlas on his lap Claus traced the line which the western allies had reached. His uniform shirt was open and Nina sat beside him her hand on his knee. Allied troops had reached the western German border except in northern Holland. A small part of eastern Belgium around Malmedy and St.Vith was still in German hands, along with about half of Luxemburg, but all along the Franco-German border no German soldier was still on west of the Reich’s border. That would not stay that way for longer than another week. With the advent of heavy snow over the past two weeks particularly in
Belgium and northern France, the western allies had started to settle in, their energies focussed on advancing into southern Austria and Yugoslavia.

  ‘You know the joke is that Rommel did it, despite Patton’s mad dash which came so close to ripping everything apart, Rommel did it. The Anglo-Americans are at our western border and neither they nor we had to loose anymore lives over it. In effect there hasn’t been a real fight in the west for two months.’

  ‘And in the south things are also better than expected: We’ve left Italy and hold the Austrian border, some bits of Croatia in northern Yugoslavia but otherwise the line follows the southern Hungarian border. More than enough space for the British to push their troops from Italy into the Balkans. They’ve lost most of south-eastern Hungary but from there the line goes north towards Lemberg and Warsaw….’

  Nina smiled inwardly even as she lost interest in the details of what her husband was saying. Claus was home. The cabinet meeting had gone on forever and by the time it ended he had been so exhausted that he had fallen asleep in the car. His chauffeur, a veteran himself, had let him sleep for a while before calling on Nina to wake her husband himself. From what Claus had mumbled things still hung in the balance: The German withdrawal from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy and the Balkans was complete. Slovakia and Hungary remained in the fight on German side, although there were doubts about some of the Slovak units. The Czechs had been promised some form of autonomy once hostilities ceased, and restoration of sovereignty as soon as possible after that. Resistance and guerrilla activity had ceased and there were negotiations about some form of local government as a prelude for restoration of the state. Anglo-American forces had reached the German border almost everywhere between Switzerland and Holland, slowed down by logistics and bickering with the French.