Оказывается, Трумэну тоже нравился Сталин

Во всяком случае, об этом свидетельствует в одном интервью трумэновский министр внутренних дел (Secretary of Interior) Оскар Чепмен.

Ссылка:

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/chapman3.htm

HESS: All right, sir, and then in Eugene, Oregon, during his stop, Mr. Truman, among other things about Mr. Stalin, said, "I like old Joe." I believe he said, "He's a prisoner of the Politburo," something like that. What do you recall about that, and the reaction to the President's statements?

CHAPMAN: I was not at the meeting at that particular place, but I immediately heard the report; it had come to me, that he had said it and I checked that out first with the President (I happened to see him later on that evening), and I just told him that it was being discussed around that he had made some compliment to "old Joe." He laughed and he said, "Well, he's like a lot of other politicians I know. They get themselves prisoners of their own making." He said, "That's his trouble today. He's a prisoner of his own guards." He used the word "guard," to me, but he meant the Politburo crowd.

HESS: Why do you think Mr. Truman had that view? The general view at the time was that Stalin was an absolute dictator, was it not?

CHAPMAN: Well, I think he was an absolute dictator insofar as his power would let him go, and insofar as they would carry out his dictation. But the Politburo didn't always carry out his dictatorial orders quite as fast and quite as brutal as Joe would have you to believe he wanted them to.

Вот как далеко от здравого смысла может отойти демократически избранный правитель. Особенно в обществе, где популярны идеи социализма и государственного вмешательства в экономику.