He killed many of his top generals before the war, in the purge of 1937. After the war he killed or sent to the gulags those that had managed to survive captivity in the German POW camps. Through it all, Hollywood and the New York intellectuals loved Uncle Joe.

They did? Perhaps you can provide some proof. Which intellectual are you referring to? Or perhaps you are like Joe McCarthy, waving some "list" that never gets shown.

He killed them off for the simple reason that they were the only threat to his power.

- Peter.

My understanding is that after the war, if anyone was a popular hero of the war, they disappeared because Stalin did not want any competing personality cults going on. Prior to the war, he killed his generals for fear of coups. The Nazis made good use of his paranoia, feeding false information via spies into the information stream that this general or that general was working with the Germans or the British to overthrow Stalin.

Who do you trust,,, who do you trust ?? :uhoh:

Too easy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty

Why should you care about New York intellectuals, I thought you were from Texas? Reading Witness by Whitaker Chambers will give you a good overview of Communist activities in the US during that period. It's a great book and and you won't even have to translate it from Latin, although you've already established that you could if you had to.

Well I don't really know it ab ovo usque ad mala after all these years,
but I still find that in omnibus requiem quaesivi, especially on these forums, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro, occasionly Ceasar's, just to see if I can still pick a few lacuna out.

I hate to break it to you Botnst, but the fellow does not seem to be from either New York or Hollywood. Too dumb.