11 February 2004

Yalta

It is a good day for Senator John Kerry. He won big in the Virginia primary. I thought about voting yesterday. It is a novel feeling, being able to declare a party affiliation after so many years of rigorous non-partisanship. But I think the Democratic Party has pretty much sorted itself out for the race this Fall without my assistance.

President Bush is not having a good day. His opponents seem to be making a good job of depicting him as a shirker during his time in the Texas Air Guard. Shoot, I remember dodging the draft then. It wasn't that hard. But I didn't feel right about it, and one thing led to another. I dodged the draft and wound up serving 27 years in the Navy. Go figure.

The news from Iraq is bad. Way bad. There was a car bomb in the ultimate soft target: a line of men waiting to apply for jobs in the new Iraqi police force. One man told of being struck in the knee by a flying severed human head. A very bad day. The Resistance is said to be feeling an imperative for violence, pending the turn-over of authority. There are revelations from Bill Safire about connections between al Qaida and Saddam, and an ominous mention of buried biologic weapons.

Even with the turnover this thing is not even near over. Churchill said it best. Not the beginning of the end. Only the end of the end of the beginning.

It was very different on this day fifty-nine years ago at Yalta. Exposed to the sun, washed by gentle waves of the Black sea, sheltered by the Crimean mountains from northern winds, Yalta is a pleasant city. It is the Southern California of Russia. The Romanovs summered here and their palaces remain. The grapes are full and rich at harvest time and the wine is good. The Nikitin botanical garden is nearby, and hosts nearly 30,000 varieties of plants.

It is an old place, as things go, and has been incorporated since the 12th century. The British have been here under arms, Tennyson wrote about the Light Brigade and the gallant if ill-advised charge into the mouth of the Cossack guns:

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made,

Honor the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred.

In the time of the Communists, the Party made the place its playground, and the face of the People's Republic had a gentle visage thereabouts. Towards the end of the unpleasantness with the Germans, Pappa Stalin invited his Allies Winston and Frankling to visit him there at one of the palaces. Franklin was not feeling his best.

He would be dead soon, and he huddled in a cloak, his face drawn. He was hardly on top of his game, and Winston was concerned. His ambassador had reported from Washington that the President "did not look so good" and doctors recommended the President avoid high-altitude flight. He would travel across the Atlantic by ship, and Winston recommended that a few destroyers be brought into the Black Sea to host the delegation. They did not worry about the Montrose Convention, or the notification of the passage of warships into the Black Sea. There was no one to complain, not in 1945.

Winston told Franklin that he thought that Stalin would take good care of him when they went ashore. He was quite correct.

In February, which was the time Yalta etched its name on the world, the average temperature is about +4C. The town is famous for its collections of literature, notably the works of Chekhov, and Biryukov.

The Big Three met for the first time at Yalta on the 5th. On the 11th, the conference was concluded. Churchill later said that six days was not enough time to dismember a nation. There was an immense amount of work to be done and it could not be completed here. The question of Franklin's health have had a long shadow. He started the first Plenary Session with an astonishing declaration.

He stated flatly that the United States would do whatever was required to establish the peace, but under no circumstances did he intend to have a major military presence on the Continent after hostilities were concluded. Stalin's eyes widened at this, at the delicious possibilities. He was in a jolly mood throughout the rest of the conference.

On the 11th, the he Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America jointly declared their mutual agreement to solve "by democratic means" the pressing political and economic problems. First things first, though.

"The United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall possess supreme authority with respect to Germany. In the exercise of such authority they will take such steps, including the complete dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security."

They agreed to divide Germany into zones controlled by each of the Big Three. Russia would be permitted to take Berlin and control the eastern half of Germany upon its surrender. Churchill suggested that France should be granted a Zone of Occupation. Stalin resisted at first, since the French had not paid anything like the price Mother Russia had paid to drive the Germans out. But eventually he accepted this idea. It would, after all, be carved out of the Zones of the Americans and the British.

Poland and Yugoslavia were given back its independence and a national election in order to create a new, independent government. In both cases, Nazi and Fascist leaders were specifically prohibited. Stalin smiled at this. Clearly the Red Army would have special concessions for transit to an occupied Zone in Eastern Germany.

Stalin agreed to fight Japan and were granted territory in the east. Stalin said he would declare war "in two or three months" after the surrender of Germany, in return for a laundry list of territories and special arrangements in the Far East. He desired the return of Southern Sakhalin Island, the internationalization of Dairen, restoration of Port Arthur as a leased naval base, and occupation of the Kurile Island chain, from Kamchatka almost to the tip of Japanese Hokkaido.

Despite the Russian's recent problems, they are still in the Kuriles and have no plans to give them back. The island chain seals up the Sea of Okhotsk, nestling it firmly in Russian arms. It is a secure place to operate submarines with long-range ballistic missiles, if a nation wished to do so.

Winston lived the longest of the Big Three. Franklin was dead in a few months. Stalin lasted long enough that I got to overlap with him, sharing a moment of history.

Stalin's daughter Svetlana described a train trip with him, returning from the Crimea to Moscow: "As we pulled in at the various stations we'd go for a stroll along the platform. My father walked as far as the engine, giving greetings to the railway workers as he went. You couldn't see a single passenger. It was a special train and no one was allowed on the platform"

She thought that the old Dictator was a man of simple tastes, and would never have dreamed the establishment of such means to protect him. He was a simple man, she thought. A man of modest means. His aspirations were only for the Party and the Motherland. But on a day not so long ago, a man who was able to dismember a nation, and help himself to the territory of several others.

I may take up the Kuriles as a cause, like the Tibetans. But the Russians removed the people who once lived on the islands. And according to Mr. Putin, that is exactly the way it will stay.

Mr. Putin is running for election, too, and he seems to be having a pretty good day despite the subway bombing in Moscow earlier this week. His number one opponent surfaced in the Ukraine after disappearing for five days. They opened a murder investigation for an hour or so. He says it was a mistake. He just went down to the corner for a pack of cigarettes.

I think he ought to take a train to the Crimea. It is nice there this time of year.