ABSTRACT
If Franklin Roosevelt had survived World War II, he would have faced a monstrous dilemma of his own making. He would have had to reconcile his vague promises to Stalin of a Soviet sphere with his assurances to the American people that the Allies were fashioning an open, democratic world. Even a master politician like Roosevelt might have faltered. How much more difficult, then, was it for Harry Truman? Truman did not even understand that he faced a dilemma. He did not know that Roosevelt had all but conceded the Soviets their sphere in Eastern Europe or that the United States was close to exploding its first atomic bomb. In his profound ignorance of the status of Roosevelt’s diplomacy, Truman naturally turned to State Department advisers. He did not realize that Roosevelt had largely ignored them, relying instead on his military advisers or his own wits. After years of plucking fruitlessly at the sleeves of those in power, the State Department grabbed its chance to explain to Truman that Roosevelt had trusted the Russians too much.
