On the one hand, he was extremely dedicated to achieving unconditional surrender. On the other hand, he was more willing to work with Stalin (afaik) than Truman, and Byrnes would never have become Secretary of State. Would FDR living to the end of WW2 have changed the outcome of the war with Japan?
First time I saw the photo of FDR and Stalin at Yalta I was nonplussed. Cold War US culture taught me the Soviets and Americans were enemies always.
I had the opposite experience, I saw this photo in some history textbook in like 8th grade, and I didn't really know anything about Stalin except for a vague idea he was a bad guy. But then I saw his name as one of three people who "saved the world" and was like, damn I guess he was actually okay. Then all the anticommunist propaganda became much heavier in high school, but I think because my first real exposure to Stalin was as a man who saved the world, it never had the desired effect of me. I was willing to accept that Stalin became a bad guy later, but in the back of my head I was like "yeah but he saved the world."
I still remember how Textbooks and teachers. were banned from mentioning or showing photos of Elbe day (the day that Soviet and Us troops advances met up) in a bunch of states for awhile because it depicted both sides getting along.
that's interesting, I did not even know about this day. Yeah, looking back it's pretty interesting they included a propaganda poster praising Stalin in an American history textbook
Exactly my point. It was a major event that was heavily publicized since it meant the war was almost over but us never talked about
I was quite plussed