W. Averell Harriman Quotes

As Far As The Russians Were Concerned, I Felt The Reverse; They Had Adequate Gold, If They Wanted To Buy, And They Weren't Dependent Upon International Trade. I Felt They Were More Self-sufficient.

This Was The Period When I Used All The Influence I Had To Get The British To Abandon Their Export Trade, And As Much As Possible Convert All Of Their Manufacturing Facilities To The Immediate Needs Of The War, Including Civilian, As Well As Military Requirements.

The Russians Often Took Advantage Of Lend-lease.

I Always Read Everything On The Desks Of People I Went To See In Moscow, London, Paris I Found It Quite Useful.

Conferences At The Top Level Are Always Courteous. Name-calling Is Left To The Foreign Ministers.

There's A Myth That Roosevelt Gave Stalin Eastern Europe. I Was With Roosevelt Every Day At Yalta.

Actually I'd Had A Certain Amount Of Experience In Europe In The Inter-war Period, As A Banker, And I Was Also A Member Of The Board Of Directors Of The International Chamber Of Commerce.

We Both Agreed That Stalin Was Determined To Hold Out Against The Germans. He Told Us He'd Never Let Them Get To Moscow. But If He Was Wrong, They'd Go Back To The Urals And Fight. They'd Never Surrender.

The Russians Obtained A Number Of Plants Under Lend-lease, Which Had Been Authorized By Washington, That I Thought Were Not Justified For Their War Effort. They Wanted Them For Postwar Use.

We Became Convinced That, Regardless Of Stalin's Awful Brutality And His Reign Of Terror, He Was A Great War Leader. Without Stalin, They Never Would Have Held.

Yet The Whole Preamble Of The Second Authorization Act For The Marshall Plan Showed The Direction Congress Was Ready To Take About Breaking Down Barriers Within Europe.

Poland, Of Course, Was The Key Country. I Remember Stalin Telling Me That The Plains Of Poland Were The Invasion Route Of Europe To Russia And Always Had Been, And Therefore He Had To Control Poland.