The Valkyrie Option

by Markus Reichardt

  Fear of the forthcoming revolution and the approaching Russian army however proved a great unifier among the Greek establishment. Germany had installed a royalist, Ioannis Rallis, as Prime Minister and for the first time gave him real powers. It had allowed him to recruit his own military – the Security Battalions. As Rallis gathered an increasingly diverse assortment of collaborationist, anti-communist elements around him Britain had stood by and watched while ELAS and the counter-revolutionary coalition of forces ate up any middle ground in Greek politics. Now in September 1944 two armed parts of Greece faced each other. Stalin looked like he was ready to meddle in this looming confrontation. Churchill knew that Britain, already stretched to the limit of its resources faced a tough choice. A choice not made easier by its wartime realpolitik towards the various Greek factions.[84]

  Britain’s approach to Greek politics had traditionally been governed by the country’s strategic position in the Mediterranean close to the Bosporus and the Suez canal. This had led them to back the Greek king and at least implicitly the unpopular Metaxas dictatorship. Churchill had been ambivalent about the matter but the King’s support for Metaxas, his undignified flight from the Germans and his failure to set himself behind any form of anti-German resistance all eroded his popularity in Greece but strangely not among the British establishment. The King’s attitude had forced London to send in SOE sabotage units to attack key Axis transport links and from these team had grown an uncomfortable alliance with a nascent republican opposition movement EDES, which the British called the National Republican Greek League. EDES mercurial leader Napoleon Zervas was anti-communist but took few steps to openly challenge the Germans as long as his areas were left alone. In the hope of cultivating an anti-communist, semi-royalist opposition for post-war Greece, Britain had funded EDES from 1942 until 1944. But Churchill himself, in a bid to keep the heat on the German forces in that country, had insisted on providing at least a modicum of supplies to ELAS which was responsible for virtually all attacks on Axis forces. They were now stuck, their support had given ELAS national credibility as the only true liberation movement, at the same time the anti-communist Foreign Office was working hard to coalesce an alliance of anti-communist Greek forces around the King. After some debate which was led by Eden, Churchill still nursing his ego after the disasters of the Moscow and Quebec conferences sanctioned an approach from the royalist camp to the collaborationist Rallis regime in Athens. There was little debate: Greece was one of those places where Britain, where the Commonwealth would make a stand to defend her status as a major power in the post-war world.

  And with that the debate shifted to the resources of the Empire and back to the increasingly gloomy situation that would arise if the United States ever presented a real invoices for all the supplies.

  Attlee turned the discussion towards the on-going repatriation of forced labourers from Germany and the disruptive effect that the on-going 8th US Air Force campaign against Germany’s transportation nodes was having not merely on the enemy but on innocents. And with that the topic of the informal peace talks slipped into the cabinet minutes and once more it was Attlee who asked the difficult questions.

  “So, presuming for a moment that they have a mandate – even a presently deniable mandate - what are these German counts and Junkers telling us exactly ?” This meeting had already gone on too long for any more formality. Even Alanbrooke, who had been asked to stay and had loosened his collar. Tonight Britain’s leaders would make some major choices.

  Eden shuffled some papers before looking up. “All of this is informal and unofficial . we all understand that that but let’s see.. there’s a lot of esoteric stuff about a future Europe which we do believe these men and women have been arguing about amongst themselves for at least the past three years.”

  “Their form of opposition’ Attlee’s snort was heartfelt. As men of action the German nobility was not held in high esteem by the Labour leader.

  ‘Yes well. If nothing else it kept them from getting arrested for doing anything real or more stupid. However they think of the world in continental terms and they see Europe as a whole. They have the same sense of history as we do and believe that ultimately, madmen like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco aside we share some basic values which make us European. They therefore argue that any solution to this conflict should seek to be a European solution. …”

  Alanbrooke was getting impatient “Can we skip to the part where we are talking about what one would call terms for peace.”

  Eden paused briefly…there was much of intellectual value in the ideas put forward by the Germans he instinctively liked. Little of the traditional militarism, rather more of the sense of history and need for long-term solutions supported by institutions operating within a common culture.“ In its own way it appealed to him.

  ‘Certainly, they propose the maintenance or restoration of the borders of Europe as they were in 1938 prior to the annexation of Austria. They also refer to the proposals put forward by Marshall Rommel in July as the basis for formalizing a ceasefire. They suggest that German forces will have retreated from all non-German soil other than the Baltics, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary by late October. In their view that takes their armies off any soil they are not welcome on. They suggest that both sides then pause during the depth of winter before we resume our advance into Germany in spring 1945. They state that German forces will not oppose our advance into the Reich if this schedule is adhered to.

  “And in the meantime they get to have one last go at the Russians, our allies.” Attlee did not pose it as a question.

  “Yes, the president of the United States would call it that.” Eden did not look up. He knew the Prime Minister would not be seeking eye contact at the moment either.

  “Do we still think that way is the question for us today. What will be discussed now must not cannot go beyond this room. Today we decide where the national interest of this nation and the Commonwealth lie. Then we will consider the interests of the alliance.” Churchill had leant forward, his iron stare fixing everyone in the room briefly before moving one. One by one they all nodded in assent.

  “I will find out if you blab!” The cigar was pointed at no-one in particular. “please continue, Anthony”

  “Yes, they were rather direct about this. In fact it seems to be the main obsession of these people that European civilization not be overrun by the Bolshevik or Asian hordes. They made it perfectly clear that the Wehrmacht will spend all available strength on halting the Soviet advance before it reaches the Reich. They were frank that this would include units withdrawn from the retreating western front between October and December 1945 and that they would possibly mount a localized offensive to blunt the Soviet advance. They also stated that a secondary purpose of this offensive would be to let many of those who committed crimes under the previous regime choose the ‘honourable way out’. “

  There was silence for nearly a minute, few of the men in the room, accustomed as they were to power, were willing to initiate a discussion they knew would herald a fundamental shift in British policy.

  “Let’s be cynical for the moment, what advantage does the course of action proposed by the American president offer us as opposed to one in which we look after our own interests? And I raise this mindful of the rather unilateral action taken by the American President regarding the border with Poland.” Attlee’s gaze was hard, “this could be the beginning unilateral US-Soviet action. We need to be careful not to push them in that direction, while at the same time protecting ourselves from it. “

  “You are no doubt referring to the potential conflict between the Atlantic charter and the continuation of the Commonwealth and the empires of France, the Netherlands and Belgium?” Eden felt like playing devil’s advocate, for he had never been fond of Churchill’s impulsive endorsement of Roosevelt’s ambiguous and aspirational document, that theoretically made the abolition of her Empire one of Britain’s war aims. In his more charitable moments he conceded t
hat at the time beggars could not have been choosers. And Britain had needed the US very, very badly in 1941.

  “The extent of that challenge remains to be seen. However I do concede that the nature of that challenge appears to be rather more real than it did in 1941.” That was as far as Churchill was willing to go at the moment.

  “Prime Minister I believe you underplay the reality of the threat” It was Attlee, never an admirer of the American President. “The reality of the Charter and the United Nations project are developing into a real threat to the political and economic future of our Empire which cannot be discounted. Furthermore the Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently re-emphasised the American ability to break this nation’s economy in weeks if they so choose. They could dictate economic terms while politically presenting a unified front.”

  Churchill looked around, hoping to sum up the argument, Gratefully there had been limited discussion; too many of the junior members of cabinet felt deeply out of their depth. “Well then I believe we all agree on what we said about the Balkans, particularly Greece. We need a presence or influence there if the Suez canal is to remain secure – a strong Soviet presence threatens that.

  September 24th

  Moscow, The Kremlin

  While the British cabinet debated their strategy towards a post-war world and the role of their allies in it. Stalin sat in his office working through a number of very significant policy changes that would be debated at the Central committee the next day. They all came down to one thing: With Roosevelt staying Churchill’s hand and giving the Soviet Union a more or less free hand to conquer Eastern Europe first militarily and later complete the conquest by more subtle political moves, the action of the Warsaw Poles, the rather overt divergence between the British and the Americans as to Russia’s rights to a defensive buffer of states in Eastern Europe necessitated a more direct approach. In order to keep Churchill happy he had been prepared to stay out of Greece, even though it left him short of a historical objective which was control of the sea route from the Black sea to the Mediterranean. He had been prepared to trade Greece for a free hand in Poland, the Balkans and the Baltics. That now seemed unnecessary. The Poles had thrown in the their lot with the Germans which meant he had a right to take their land even without subterfuge. The reactionary elements in the British leadership would see this as their opportunity to entrench British influence in central Europe. Already the French had made some – admittedly feeble – noises about their historical cultural affiliations to Romania. But he controlled Bulgaria and Romania already, Yugoslavia would soon fall to him and Tito brought to heel. And Greece, well there was now no longer a reason to hold back there either.

  Chapter 6

  3 pm September 25th

  The White House

  Washington

  The President sat upright in bed supported by a mountain of pillows behind his back. Mrs Roosevelt was away but that would not have mattered, they had not shared a common bed for years. The President’s hand gripped a letter. It was from Albert Einstein. The German-born scientist had written to the President earlier in the war to warn him of the threat of a German nuclear bomb and to urge that America embark upon the challenge of developing the bomb first. Einstein’s letter now struck a different note: It presented a brief and to Roosevelt naïve summary of events since the removal of Hitler, ending in the words:

  “…In light of these events Mr President, we in the scientific community believe that the urgency to develop a nuclear weapon has been reduced. From our informal links we believe that the German programme has been effectively stopped and that the new German administration will shortly make a public statement to this effect. At the same time there are concerns that the continuation of this programme on the current scale could lead to its exposure and concern among other nation states, notably Russia about the need to develop their own nuclear capability for defensive purposes. We therefore run the risk of entering into nuclear competition for purely defensive reasons. We therefore urge you to stop and reduce the programme to a peace-time level programme whose aims will become the peaceful harnessing of the enormous energy of the atom.”

  In a chair across the room, tall lanky Harry Hopkins, his most trusted advisor since the thirties, sat awaiting his master’s comment. Harry was Roosevelt’s alter ego able to read the President as few others could, able to anticipate moods, capable of speaking freely when others would not dare. The President looked at his friend, reminding himself for the hundredth time that they both were sick men. Polio had made him a cripple; Harry’s body had lost the ability to absorb proteins and certain fats. Harry Hopkins looked like a bag of coat hangers carelessly tossed across the chair with a suit thrown around them. His health had deteriorated to the point where he had even given up on his appearance.

  “What do you think Harry, what should I do with this German scientist who thinks he can make policy. On an issue that officially does not exist. The man has nerve. “

  Hopkins thin lips cracked a smile. “And yet on the surface it makes sense. Shifting to a peaceful purpose could make things easier when Uncle Joe does find out about it. Hell, I’d be scared if I knew that he was developing something like this and wasn’t telling us.”

  “And yet we may still need this ace up our sleeve if the Germans or the Japs decide to tough it out. This thing in Europe, Harry, it’s not over yet no matter what Winston says. Japan certainly isn’t”

  “Churchill is merely reflecting the war-weariness of his people. And his fear that if Germany is crushed, Russia could become the dominant power in Europe… well“ Hopkins decided to let that one hang.

  “Harry don’t you get started too.” Roosevelt tried to lean forward “We’ve been over this before, damn it. Our support for Britain in the Great War just gave them the opportunity to continue their imperialist ways. I know Winston is concerned about Britain staying a first-class power and thinks that only by holding onto his Empire can this be done. That’s an outdated and morally bankrupt view. This old balance of power stuff that he preaches as the solution for stability in Europe is the reason we are in this war. Its outdated and it does not work for long, the aftermath of the Great War showed that.

  Besides, Stalin may sit beside us at the conference table anywhere in the world. But with an army that size, with that many victories, he’s won the right to tower over any agreement. He had done the hard work grinding down the German.“

  Hopkins leaned back, he knew FDR was venting his frustration at not being able to change Churchill’s mind by charming him. FDR needed to let his anger flow. Hopkins had always believed that the two years from 1939 to 1941 when Britain had stood basically alone against Hitler, had earned her the right to be treated as an equal in the shaping of the post-war order, no matter how dry she had been bled. But he knew this argument would not wash with Roosevelt even when he was in a good mood. Deep down he suspected that much as Roosevelt loved the votes and adulation of his voters, he admired the raw power that Stalin could command.

  “Winston already knows that we half own that island. That’s something he is going to have to get used to, right after we finish this war for him, our way. And then,“ FDR’s eyes lit up “we’ll get the United Nations going, a new world order. For that we need Russia, China, Britain and ourselves. “

  “Uncle Joe is a real bastard though” Harry held fewer illusions about the Russian leader or the Soviet system than his boss.

  FDR waved the thought away with his hand. “Joe, I can get to him. I did at Teheran when Churchill was not around to stir. We made the link at Teheran. Joe just like all Russians wants to know that you like him and take him serious. Winston thinks that by being tough he can get to him he’s wrong.”

  “He’s a dictator that’s never faced a free and fair election.”

  “Communism is essentially an egalitarian ideology and once the pressure of the war is over and Joe sees the United Nations working he’ll relax and things will get better. The United Nations is the only answer
, the only way we can build peace in the world. That’s where we will sort out things with Stalin. You just watch if Stalin tries to be difficult in the United Nations and he faces me there with the world behind me, he will have to see reason.”

  “Which still leaves us with Einstein’s letter. Do we ignore it?” Hopkins was uncertain.

  “No he carries too much weight, it was his letter that started much of the project. Send him something vague, something like we have taken your comments under advice. Something that shuts him up but keeps him out of our hair. We may need that bomb and I will not let things get derailed now because Einstein suddenly remembers he was once German.”

  “I guess it’s also our insurance if things get sticky with Stalin at the United Nations?” Hopkins had made it a question but Roosevelt knew that it was meant as a statement. There was no need to disagree with his confidant. “Yes Harry perhaps it could come to that after the war, in the meantime I will not quarrel with Joe just because he wants some security for his borders and extends his power further into Europe than before. That would teach Winston the futility of imperialism. Now call the Marine Harry,” In seconds a large Marine corporal in full dress uniform entered the room pushing the presidential wheelchair. Carefully he took the President whose lower torso was as always limp as that of a doll and gently pulled him into a standing position next to the bed. Roosevelt felt the pain shoot through his atrophied legs and hips. Damn it, so useless and still painful. Whenever the Marine assisted him Roosevelt was conscious of his own weight, and he had under instructions form doctor managed to lose some weight. The soldier gently leaned forward and let Roosevelt slide into the wheelchair, carefully arranging the President’s legs before wheeling out the door to the Oval Office. As always the young muscular clean-shaven corporal never spoke throughout. Roosevelt would always say ‘Thank you’ and the corporal would briefly snap to attention. That however was the limit of their interaction, both awkward with it. But the Marine was the least of his problems; his health made him a virtual prisoner of the medical profession. They limited his workload, prescribed naps, massages, the maximum amount of hours he could work. And every time he sneezed they multiplied like rats in the corridors of the White House, oozing concern, administering advice and chemicals, when they and he both knew, he was dying.