Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [144]
“He’s got a right to if he’s expected to be commandant by these rules. However, we reached the same opinion independently. So did Lieutenant Bolinski. The whole document is written by Russians, in Russian, and for Russians.”
“No matter what the rules are,” Hansen answered, “the success of the four-power occupation depends solely upon the desire of the Russians to cooperate.”
“Why do we have to bend over backward to let them know we’re not going to hurt their feelings? They’re not bashful. Pretty damned soon they’re going to have us believing that they won the war single-handed.”
“It’s about all we can do to prevent them from giving the Yugoslavs a sector of Berlin. The Russians say they’re entitled to it more than the French. How do you answer that?”
“Colonel Hazzard has his work cut out for him.”
“We all have.”
“All four licensed political parties, headquarters, Russian Sector. Police Headquarters, Russian Sector. Radio Station, Russian Sector. City Hall Assembly and Magistrate, Russian Sector. University, Russian Sector.”
“Sit down, Sean. I hate to make that headache of yours worse this morning, but you’d better read this.”
TOP SECRET. RECOMMENDATIONS, POTSDAM CONFERENCE
Sean had worked on some parts of this himself.
RECOMMENDATION:
We must make the Russians spell out their reparations demands or they can stretch them for infinity. The Russians must be made to account for what they have already taken out of their zone of Germany and apply it against the total bill.
We must establish four-power control to govern the flow of reparations to the Soviet Union. Inasmuch as Russians demand great deliveries from the Western Zones of Germany we should not agree to make such deliveries until they agree to an accounting and controls.
REJECTED:
The spirit of mutual trust which we hope to establish will be damaged if we offend the Soviet Union in this manner. Sean flipped the page.
RECOMMENDATION:
We must force the Soviet Union to adhere to the principle of running Germany as a single economic unit. This is being made impossible because the Soviet Union has already physically cut off their zone of occupation from the rest of Germany. We must insist on open borders, open commerce, and free interzone travel.
REJECTED:
This would make the Soviet Union feel that we are against their moving the Polish borders west to the Oder/Neisse line. Although we have not agreed to these border changes, the Soviet argument of setting up a buffer has merit.
“They didn’t ask us about any goddamned border changes,” Sean said. “They just did it”
“Read on, Major.”
RECOMMENDATION:
There is grave concern over allowing the Soviet Union to use our currency engravings and plates to print occupation currency with no method of accounting. The Soviet Union could flood our zones with paper money, buy out Western Zone resources and create inflation.
REJECTED:
Fiscal and monetary experts agree these arguments are possible. However, the Soviet Union would greet the demand to return engravings as a direct question of their honesty.
RECOMMENDATION:
The declaration of the Potsdam Conference guaranteeing freedoms to the German (and Slavic) people and further guaranteeing free elections is a farce.
The Soviet Union cannot guarantee something for other people they dare not give their own people. The Russian people have lived under a police state in one form or another for the entire 1200 years of their recorded history.
We must insist on a definition of freedom, free elections, and democratic institutions.
REJECTED:
A proclamation at the end of the conference is necessary. It would take two decades to negotiate the exact meanings.
There was more, much more. Sean handed the file back to General Hansen quietly. “It was all I could do to push through things like the air corridors. So, we’ve got to sit still and wait for them to push us too far.”
“Will we know it when they do?”
“Not today,” Hansen said. “The war against Japan ended a week ago. Today we see American boys in the uniform of their country