National Affairs: Anniversary Remembrance

The invasion of Korea was not the only war anniversary the world marked last week. It was also the tenth anniversary of the Nazi attack on Soviet Russia—an occasion noted at the time by the then little-known junior Senator from Missouri. As the Nazis drove into Russia, Harry S. Truman got the following observation off his chest: “If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.”