1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II

349 Pages·1999·5.43 MB·English

by  Michael Jabara Carley

Michael Jabara Carley
19 3 9

THE ALLIANCE
THAT NEVER WAS
AND THE COMING OF
WORLD WAR II
CHICAGO
Ivan R. Dee
1999
1939■ Copyright © 1999 by Michael Jabara Carley. All rights reserved,
including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. For
information, address: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 1332 North Halsted Street,
Chicago 6062.2. Manufactured in the United States of America and printed on
acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Carley, Michael Jabara, 1945 -
1939 : the alliance that never was and the coming of World War II /
Michael Jabara Carley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56663-252-8 (alk. paper)
1. World War, 1939--1945—Diplomatic history. 2. World War, 1939-1945
—Causes. I. Title. II. Title: Alliance that never was and the coming of
World War II.
D748.B37 1999
940.53'ii2—dc2i 99-24873
For Irusia, Mom, Big, Steve, Linde,
Grisha, Eddie, Jack, and Vo

I am wounded,
but I am not slain!
I’ll but lie me down
and bleed a while.
And then I’ll rise
and fight again!
—Percy’s Reliques (1765)

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Leading Participants in the Drama xxi
1. “A Long List of Disappointments” 3
2. “Thou Art Weighed in the Balance and Found Wanting” 35
3. “I939 Will fee the Decisive Year” 82
4. “Russia Has 100 Divisions” 116
5. “The Russians Will Give Us More Trouble” 144
6. Molotov Is Suspicious 183
7. “A Situation of Delicacy and Danger” 213
8. Epilogue: Anglo-Soviet Relations Are Like a Taut String 242
Notes 261
Selected Bibliography 299
Index 309
lx

Acknowledgments
IN 1997 my good friend Geoffrey Roberts asked me casually why I
did not write a book about 1939. “You’re the person to do it,” he
said, “now that so many Soviet documents have been published.” At
first I wondered whether there was a need for another book on ap­
peasement, collective security, and the beginnings of the Second
World War. There is, after all, A. J. R Taylor’s work, which is still
provoking, Sidney Aster’s study based on the British Foreign Office
documents, and Donald Cameron Watt’s later thick tome on the last
year of peace—or rather, relative peace.1 And I had already written a
series of articles on Anglo-Franco-Soviet relations during the 1930s
and the lead-up to war.2 Nevertheless, the more I thought about it,
the more I was drawn to Geoffrey’s idea. As I pondered whether to
embark upon this project, Lloyd Gardner introduced to me to Ivan
R. Dee, who liked the proposal for a book on 1939 and encouraged
me to proceed.
I have made two research trips to Moscow working on the
1920s, but the archivists at the Russian foreign ministry (AVPRF)
could not arrange in sufficient time for me during my last stay to
read files on 1938-1939. The Russian archives are in any event only
“sort of” open, but the published papers for 1938-1941 give a good
sense of Soviet foreign policy positions and objectives. Most of the
new material for this period was published between 1990 and 1998,
and thus far it has been little used. These documents provide a So­
viet perspective on events that we have heretofore seen largely
through Western eyes. More than that, the melding together of the
xl
xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
four sets of documentary sources—British, French, Soviet, and Ger­
man—creates a greater depth of field into still-controversial topics.
I undertook the research for this study in increments over a pe­
riod of more than ten years, thanks to the financial support of the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. With­
out the Council’s support, this work could not have been accom­
plished. Nor could my research have proceeded so well without the
goodwill and helpfulness of many archivists in Paris, London, and
Moscow. I extend my thanks to them all.
My intellectual world view began to develop in the 1960s but
was disciplined under the guidance of the late John M. Sherwood,
who died too young. Good friends and colleagues—among others,
Joel Blatt, John C. Cairns, Richard K. Debo, William D. Irvine,
William R. Keylor, Sally Marks, Geoffrey Roberts, Stephen A.
Schuker, and Robert J. Young—have helped form my ideas, chal­
lenging and sometimes disagreeing with me, or I with them. Their
friendship and collegiality are gratefully acknowledged. They know
that I wrote this manuscript during an autumn-time of adversity. It
was no easy task. But the old saw holds that good will issue from
evil, un bien pour un maL I hope this book proves out the tradi­
tional adage, and I raise my arms in celebration, feet dancing. Nunc
est bibendum.
M. J. c.
Ottawa
April 1999