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Article: Stalin's role in the coming of World War II: the international debate goes on.(Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's plan to attack Nazi-occupied Europe)
- Article from:
- World Affairs
- Article date:
- September 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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C'est un monstre," French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault said of Stalin following an overlong session of negotiation and enforced society, lasting almost until dawn, in the Kremlin in December 1944. The social exchange centered around a buffet and film seance commanded by Stalin. In the course of the evening with Charles DeGaulle and his advisers, Stalin had volunteered several times to speed negotiations to a conclusion by shutting up "boring" diplomats with a machine gun--never making wholly clear whether he intended to include the Frenchmen present in his proposed massacre.(1)
Perhaps Bidault was rendered excessively judgmental by what may have appeared to ...