The Stalin Affair
The Impossible Alliance That Won the War
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4.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From internationally bestselling historian Giles Milton comes the remarkable true story of the motley group of Allied men and women who worked to manage Stalin’s mercurial, explosive approach to diplomacy during four turbulent years of World War II.
In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, shattering what Stalin had considered an ironclad partnership. There were real fears that Stalin’s forces would be defeated or that the Soviet leader would once again strike a deal with Hitler. Either eventuality would spell catastrophe for both Britain and the United States.
Enter W. Averell Harriman: a railroad magnate and, at the start of the war, the fourth-richest man in America. At Roosevelt’s behest he traveled to Britain to serve as a liaison between the president and Churchill and to spearhead what became known as the Harriman Mission. Together with his fashionable young daughter Kathy, an unforgettable cast of British diplomats, and Churchill himself, he would eventually manage to wrangle Stalin into the partnership the Allies needed to defeat Hitler.
Based on unpublished diaries, letters, and secret reports, The Stalin Affair reveals troves of new material about the path to Allied victory, full of vivid scenes between celebrated and infamous World War II figures.
Includes eight-page, black & white photograph insert.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This piquant WWII chronicle from historian Milton (Checkmate in Berlin) features a charming tycoon and his well-heeled daughter in a down-to-the-wire plot to rescue Europe from the Nazis. In March 1941, Britain was under "relentless" Luftwaffe attack and "sinking fast," Milton writes, when President Franklin Roosevelt handpicked railroad magnate Averell Harriman, then the fourth richest man in America, to visit Prime Minister Winston Churchill and report back on what food, supplies, and weaponry were needed. Milton describes how Harriman, "with striking good looks, trim and athletic to boot," won Churchill's trust (and seduced his daughter-in-law Pamela) within a fortnight of his arrival, and how he pulled strings so his 20-year-old daughter, Kathy, could join him in London and later in Moscow. Citing unpublished diaries, letters, and classified documents, the author credits the duo with "keeping the fragile Big Three Alliance on track." He describes how Harriman convinced Churchill to allow the Trans-Iranian railroad to arm Stalin via the Persian Gulf, and how as ambassador to the Soviet Union he "assuaged Stalin's fears of betrayal" and countered "naive" efforts at manipulation from Roosevelt that triggered Stalin's paranoia. Milton does not laden the story with granular detail; his forte is describing soused Kremlin dinners and embassy parties (where Kathy danced with Soviet generals hoping to glean insights into Stalin's war plan). The result is a breezy, boozy romp.
