America the Beautiful

Quote: It saddens me to see the gradual escalation of anti-American moods in Ukraine. I wonder why some of my fellow Ukrainians don’t bother to figure out where the wind is blowing and who can benefit from this.
Personally, I have a great deal of respect for Americans. Above all, I am very grateful to them. Why? Mostly, perhaps, because the Soviet Union could not have won the Second World War without the Allies, above all, the United States. I remember Nikita Khrushchev saying that Stalin had repeatedly emphasized that the USSR would have never won the war without the US. Molotov once observed that the question of the importance of America’s role in the victory over Nazi Germany had been deliberated by the Politburo.
Actually, I don’t care whether or not Stalin made this fact public. I am neither a politician nor a historian. I am an ordinary citizen of Ukraine, who has lived a rather long life and has a rather long memory.
Some foreigners with whom I have talked have been surprised to learn that people in the post-Soviet countries don’t know much about the history of the Second World War. I would reply with a bitter smile that they don’t even know the history of the Soviet-German War, except from Soviet and Communist Party history textbooks that were revised a dozen times.
A reminder of some facts is in order. The West recently marked the 65th anniversary of the British-American invasion of North Africa. It is a shame that this event passed unnoticed in my country, considering that from September 1940 until May 1943 the Allied forces fought the Wehrmacht in Africa, sustaining heavy losses and valiantly winning battles that resulted in victory, thus preventing countless German troops from being deployed to Russia. We remember the sacrifices and feats of arms of the Allies, particularly the US.
After the United States declared war on Japan and Germany in December 1941, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, American forces took part in the Pacific campaign. Suffering heavy losses, they managed to draw the huge Japanese army away from the Soviet border. By this time the Japanese had captured Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines and were threatening Australia. It is common knowledge that Stalin was horrified by the threat of Japan’s invasion in the east. When the Japanese ambassador was leaving Moscow, Stalin accompanied him to the railway terminal. As far as I know, this was the first and last time he ever did this.
During the first five days of the Second World War, starting on June 22, 1941, the Germans marched into Ukraine, covering a distance of 200 kilometers. Within two weeks they had established control over half of Ukraine. Even a schoolchild can figure out what would have happened to the Soviet Union if the Americans had not engaged the Japanese army in the east and stopped the formations led by Rommel, the Desert Fox, in Africa. By 1942 not only would the Germans have reached the Caucasus and the Volga River, they would also have behind the Urals.
Some German divisions were moved from the Soviet border in conjunction with the uprising in Yugoslavia. Many US and British pilots died during the bombing raids targeting the Wehrmacht in that country. This helped Tito survive and eventually hold back about as many German troops as during the siege of Stalingrad.

http://www.day.kiev.ua/198794

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