> But remember, originally they wanted to pastoralize Germany and
impose a
> punitive peace. They only reversed course under pressure from
communism
> and the left.
My impression is that Morgenthau, FDR's Treasury secretary, was the only real advocate of that position in the upper reaches of power, and that FDR had already firmly decided against it long before he went to Yalta -- that is, when the model of US/USSR relations was still one of cooperation and the cold war was only a glint in Averill Harriman's eye.
Michael
--Michael, I think that's correct, or at least Carolyn Eisenberg's version in her history of the Berlin Wall... http://tinyurl.com/23dtt
Carolyn Eisenberg contended that as early as 1943, planning for post- war Germany began in earnest. The Franklin Roosevelt administration worked to avoid a repeat of Versailles. It hoped to limit aggressions by altering political and economic orders. Early expressions of ideas indicated a rift within the cabinet. Roosevelt and other liberal New Dealers like Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Assistant Secretary Harry Dexter White, and Robert Lovett desired a harsh approach. Germany should be occupied, demilitarized, denazified, and dismembered. Soviets should reap reparations from Germany and the Allies should cooperate in operation zones. Roosevelt sought to meet Russian security needs regarding the German nation in order to insure peace in the world and to gain Soviet concessions on other matters.