Publisher's Synopsis
May 6-The Soviet losses during World War II are unimaginable to most Americans, a staggering loss of some thirty million lives, not to mention the destruction of families, industry, land, culture, and infrastructure. Only the Chinese, who lost some twenty million during the fight with Japan, can possibly fathom the kind of sacrifice the Soviet peoples endured, such as the siege of Leningrad, before they prevailed. Such fortitude, such perseverance and courage, are a testament to the power of humanity against a force of evil dedicated to the destruction not only of human lives, but of mankind's unbounded future. It is this power of humanity, seen in the Soviet resistance and the eventual Allied victory that we celebrate today, and also in those individuals from every nation who bore that burden with dignity and an undying passion for the future of mankind. The collaboration between the three great powers: the U.S.A., the Soviet forces, and China, was key to the allied victory in World War II, and remains the cornerstone for a new world system today. President Franklin Roosevelt, who recognized the role of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin, as well as the efforts of both the Nationalist and Communist Chinese against Japan, personally rejected any attempt to maintain the British Empire's policy of colonization or conflict, and looked to a world of collaboration between the emerging independent nations of the world, especially including Soviet Russia, China, and India. FDR's post-war view was entirely different than the one implemented by Britain's Churchill and President Harry Truman after FDR's death. But, following the war in the Pacific, an artificial separation was made by British imperial and Wall Street interests, specifically to divide these three major nations into Cold War enemies. It is now time for the legacy of the Cold War to end. As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said to members of the U.S. State Department on May 3, 2017: "The way we have been delivering our mission was in many ways shaped and as a residual of the Cold War era. And in many respects, we've not yet transitioned ourselves to this new reality... and you can see when we have our conversations with NATO-another example-there are many institutions around the world that were created during a different era. "So one of the things, as we get into this opportunity to look at how we get our work done, is to think about the world as it is today and to leave behind-well, we do it this way because we've been doing it this way for the last 30 years or 40 years or 50 years, because all of that was created in a different environment. "I guess what I'm inviting all of you to do is to approach this effort that we're going to undertake with no constraints to your thinking-with none."
