Interview with Frank Roberts, 1986 [1]

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Frank Roberts, 1986 [1]
Description:
Frank Roberts was with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office starting in the late 1930s, and served as Ambassador to the USSR from 1960-1962. He begins with a recollection of Neville Chamberlain's (and his own) views of the United States and USSR during World War II, as well as Churchill's attempts to get the U.S. into the war, and Churchill's relationship with Roosevelt. Before the end of the conflict, he recalls, the British Prime Minister had decided Stalin would not be an ally for long, largely because of Soviet actions in Poland. He explores each of the great powers' expectations for the Yalta summit. No one was surprised, he says, by the USSR's close ties to Eastern Europe after the war; the question was only whether their control would be "brutal," and he recounts examples of "crude" Soviet attitudes that he witnessed personally. Other detailed commentary covers George Kennan and his impact on Western policy-makers; British attitudes toward strategic bombing during the war; Soviet reactions to Hiroshima; and Western demobilization after the war. Turning to nuclear matters, Mr. Roberts discusses the U.S. monopoly and its effects on diplomacy, as well as the impact of the atomic bomb on notions of war, especially at the time of the Berlin Blockade and Czechoslovak coup of the late 1940s when the Soviets had a major advantage in conventional forces. He also addresses the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and U.S. containment policy, then – without excusing Stalin's actions – explains Russian thinking behind creating a cordon sanitaire in Eastern Europe.
Interviewee:
Roberts, Frank, Sir, 1907-
Date:
March 21, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Yalta Conference (1945)
Soviet Union
Isolationism
Warfare, Conventional
Communism
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Czechoslovakia--History--Coup d’etat, 1948
Berlin (Germany)--History--Blockade, 1948-1949
United Nations
World War II
Great Britain
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005
Eden, Anthony, Earl of Avon, 1897-1977
Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
Byrnes, James F. (James Francis), 1882-1972
Chamberlain, Neville, 1869-1940
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Places:
England > London
United States
Germany
France
Romania
Japan
China
Poland
Extent:
02:06:53:25
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_DF06CB9DD90247D6A7E0A2EF0EF74A09
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_DF06CB9DD90247D6A7E0A2EF0EF74A09