Yalta conference
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The Yalta conference of February 1945 brought Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin together in Crimea to settle the post-war reorganisation of Germany and Europe. John Kiriakou uses it as a set-piece illustration of what a single well-placed human source is worth, a question first put to him in the George Washington University class that led to his own recruitment.

Why Yalta

Kiriakou's framing begins with the venue: Yalta is "really, really hard to get to," and with the war still on there was no flying over it. He traces Roosevelt's route as a train to Norfolk, Virginia, a sea crossing to Malta taking about a week, then Cairo, then Iran, and only then Yalta.

The explanation he gives for that itinerary is intelligence. Stalin had a spy in the White House, and the spy told him Roosevelt was sick; Stalin therefore wanted him as weak as possible when the talks began, and chose accordingly.

The concession

On arrival the American delegation was exhausted and Roosevelt wanted to sleep, but Stalin insisted the talks begin immediately. In Kiriakou's telling the consequence was concrete: "just to be able to go to bed, Roosevelt gave up Poland."

Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 12 April 1945, two months after the conference. Kiriakou's closing question to his interviewer is the point of the whole anecdote: "do you see what a well-placed spy can do for you?"

See also

- John Kiriakou
- CIA Political Psychology Division
