23. Shelving Churchill’s Plan to Attack the Soviets in 1945
By 1945, the Soviet military was not the hapless rabble it had been in 1941 when the Germans invaded. It had become a veteran and battle-hardened force that had won bigger campaigns against significantly greater opposition than the Allies had faced. Churchill’s generals concluded that attacking the Soviets would be ill-advised because far from being a pushover, 1945’s Red Army was dangerous, vicious, and very big. If war broke out, Churchill was advised, it was more likely to end with the Red Army conquering all of continental Europe, instead of getting chased back to the USSR.
The generals also pointed out that Britain on her own stood no chance against the Soviets, and America had no incentive to join Britain in attacking them. Especially not over Poland and Eastern Europe. Standing up for Poland was a point of honor for Churchill. However, few in Britain’s government, and fewer still in America’s, thought Poland or Eastern Europe was worth an even greater war against the USSR than the one just concluded against Germany. Unlike Britain, America had never guaranteed Poland’s territorial integrity, nor had it entered World War II in order to defend Polish sovereignty. Faced with unpleasant reality, Churchill grudgingly let the matter drop, and Operation Unthinkable was shelved.
