t to meet with Joseph Stalin and set the stage for the upcoming Potsdam Conference, and was greatly pleased about the "good progress" Hopkins made.(25) In a telegram to Truman on 12 May 1945 Winston Churchill expressed his fear and concerns that the Allies, his country included, were withdrawing troops out of Europe, and asked, "Meanwhile what is to happen about Russia?"(26) If, as Alperovitz maintains, Truman was seeking a "showdown" with Russia would he not have responded to Churchill's fears and ordered America's troops to stay in Eastern Europe? That way when the delayed showdown did occur, he would still have military leverage in Europe. Instead Truman continued to withdraw his American troops from Eastern Europe. Later Truman explained his reasoning: "We were 150 miles east of the border of the occupation zone line agreed to at Yalta. I felt that agreements made in the war to keep Russia fighting should be kept and I kept them to the letter."(27) In these statements, we see a sincere desire not to have a confrontation with Russia, or to intimidate them, but rather a real desire to cooperate with them. In a letter to his wife on 18 July Truman told her that, "a start has been made and I've gotten what I came for--Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it."(28) There is no antagonism in these words, only pleasure over Stalin's entrance.(29) Nevertheless, there is one single, yet extremely important, diary entry which seems to support the Alperovitz theory. In his diary on 17 July, the first day of the Potsdam Conference, Truman recorded that, "Most of the big points are settled. [Stalin will] be in the Jap war on August 15th. Fini Japs when that comes about."(30) Those last six words are of the utmost importance, for they strongly suggest that Truman desired not to receive help from the Russians, but instead to finish the war before Russian aid came into being. Perhaps, as Alperovitz maintains, there may well have been a de...
