1945: The War That Never Ended - Softcover

Gregor Dallas is the author of 1918: War and Peace, 1815: The Roads to Waterloo, and other major histories.

*Starred Review* The cessation of hostilities in 1945 did not correspond with peace, a bitter paradox Dallas scrutinizes in this exacting history. Although the origin of the cold war may seem controversial, according to Dallas, its cause was simple: Stalin's determination to cash in his 1939 pact with Hitler--with or without Hitler himself. The Soviet dictator's success--it permanently set international boundaries and fueled the imposition of Communist regimes for decades--hinged, in hindsight, on August 1944, according to Dallas. For some euphoric few days, it seemed the war might end: Paris was in insurrection against the retreating Germans and so was Warsaw. However, Eisenhower decided against a rush on Berlin across the northern German plain; simultaneously, Stalin halted his armies to let the Nazis destroy the Polish anti-Communists. The ensuing protraction of the war into the following year, besides consuming millions more lives, permitted all manner of maneuvering over the shape of the postwar world. Telescoping his narrative from conference table to street rubble, Dallas embraces detail yet sustains remarkable dramatic focus. Superbly sensitive to the ground-level tragedy and the high-level politics of 1944-45, the readably fluent Dallas proves integral to understanding both what is known and unknown about the cataclysmic conclusion of World War II. Gilbert Taylor
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