In 1943 the leaders of the Allies met for a conference to discuss strategies for winning the war. The American ambassadors, including FDR attempted to use humor to find common ground with Stalin and Molotov. When the topic of what to do with the brass of the Nazi party post war came up, Stalin said that 50,000 of them would have to be executed. When Churchhill began to berate Stalin for such barbarity, FDR chimed in that perhaps they could find a middle ground and only execute 49,000 of them. Churchill became even more enraged and stormed out of the room, causing Stalin to chase after him claiming that it was just a joke and return to the discussions. Most British accounts of this conference take a negative view of the American strategy of using humor, mostly at Churchill’s expense, to befriend Stalin and the Soviets
gluxton on
Have a feeling Stalin may well have been serious about this!
BeduinZPouste on
Was Stalin actually joking? I always thought he was serious.
Independent-Emu7255 on
Its my opinion that Churchill was utterly in the right here, FDR was not very good at handling Stalin and any thing that sounded like Western approval of Stalin being Stalin would have immediately been used as justification.
To be Fair Churchill was also wrong footed by Stalin and made his own mistakes, lets not forget the ‘naughty’ percentages agreement with Stalin at the 4th Moscow conference
No_Pianist_4407 on
Stalin: “Come on Winston, it’s a joke, obviously, I would never settle for a number as low as 50,000”
raptorrat on
It also doesn’t help Churchill didn’t trust Stalin not to make it 500.000.
Jche98 on
Churchill stood up for the rights of the Nazi officers but refused to alleviate the famine in Bengal because the Indians were “breeding like rabbits”
Pendragon1948 on
Joke or not, Stalin and Roosevelt were right. They should’ve shot a lot more Nazis than they did, frankly, instead of letting them off the hook with a stern talking to (so they could go take back their positions in law, civil service, the military, academia, and politics).
Right-Aspect2945 on
Maybe Churchill would have gotten it if they were talking about dead Indians.
Efficient-Orchid-594 on
Churchill ” those are rookie numbers, i manage to killed four million Indians !”
swainiscadianreborn on
Not sure about FDR, but Stalin was not joking. He was 100% testing the waters.
alli_jon7 on
British humor is “unique”
Jack-of-Hearts-7 on
Stalin wasn’t joking.
90daysismytherapy on
ehh one of the big errors of the war, they absolutely should have executed all the top 50,000 nazis available
Squeaky_Ben on
Given our current situation… yeah, that would have been better.
15 Comments
In 1943 the leaders of the Allies met for a conference to discuss strategies for winning the war. The American ambassadors, including FDR attempted to use humor to find common ground with Stalin and Molotov. When the topic of what to do with the brass of the Nazi party post war came up, Stalin said that 50,000 of them would have to be executed. When Churchhill began to berate Stalin for such barbarity, FDR chimed in that perhaps they could find a middle ground and only execute 49,000 of them. Churchill became even more enraged and stormed out of the room, causing Stalin to chase after him claiming that it was just a joke and return to the discussions. Most British accounts of this conference take a negative view of the American strategy of using humor, mostly at Churchill’s expense, to befriend Stalin and the Soviets
Have a feeling Stalin may well have been serious about this!
Was Stalin actually joking? I always thought he was serious.
Its my opinion that Churchill was utterly in the right here, FDR was not very good at handling Stalin and any thing that sounded like Western approval of Stalin being Stalin would have immediately been used as justification.
To be Fair Churchill was also wrong footed by Stalin and made his own mistakes, lets not forget the ‘naughty’ percentages agreement with Stalin at the 4th Moscow conference
Stalin: “Come on Winston, it’s a joke, obviously, I would never settle for a number as low as 50,000”
It also doesn’t help Churchill didn’t trust Stalin not to make it 500.000.
Churchill stood up for the rights of the Nazi officers but refused to alleviate the famine in Bengal because the Indians were “breeding like rabbits”
Joke or not, Stalin and Roosevelt were right. They should’ve shot a lot more Nazis than they did, frankly, instead of letting them off the hook with a stern talking to (so they could go take back their positions in law, civil service, the military, academia, and politics).
Maybe Churchill would have gotten it if they were talking about dead Indians.
Churchill ” those are rookie numbers, i manage to killed four million Indians !”
Not sure about FDR, but Stalin was not joking. He was 100% testing the waters.
British humor is “unique”
Stalin wasn’t joking.
ehh one of the big errors of the war, they absolutely should have executed all the top 50,000 nazis available
Given our current situation… yeah, that would have been better.