The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War

This piquant WWII chronicle from historian Milton (Checkmate in Berlin) features a charming tycoon and his well-heeled daughter in a down-to-the-wire plot to rescue Europe from the Nazis. In March 1941, Britain was under “relentless” Luftwaffe attack and “sinking fast,” Milton writes, when President Franklin Roosevelt handpicked railroad magnate Averell Harriman, then the fourth richest man in America, to visit Prime Minister Winston Churchill and report back on what food, supplies, and weaponry were needed. Milton describes how Harriman, “with striking good looks, trim and athletic to boot,” won Churchill’s trust (and seduced his daughter-in-law Pamela) within a fortnight of his arrival, and how he pulled strings so his 20-year-old daughter, Kathy, could join him in London and later in Moscow. Citing unpublished diaries, letters, and classified documents, the author credits the duo with “keeping the fragile Big Three Alliance on track.” He describes how Harriman convinced Churchill to allow the Trans-Iranian railroad to arm Stalin via the Persian Gulf, and how as ambassador to the Soviet Union he “assuaged Stalin’s fears of betrayal” and countered “naive” efforts at manipulation from Roosevelt that triggered Stalin’s paranoia. Milton does not laden the story with granular detail; his forte is describing soused Kremlin dinners and embassy parties (where Kathy danced with Soviet generals hoping to glean insights into Stalin’s war plan). The result is a breezy, boozy romp. (Sept.)