| | Churchill had at first vigorously opposed the destruction of Germany. Churchill however, seeing the approach of the war's end, was troubled about England's financial condition and anxious to get from Roosevelt a huge grant of billions of dollars for post-war use. While Churchill, Roosevelt held out against any more money. Ultimately Roosevelt yielded and agreed to give England another six billion dollars. Churchill agreed to the Morgenthau Plan. | | Churchill had at first vigorously opposed the destruction of Germany. Churchill however, seeing the approach of the war's end, was troubled about England's financial condition and anxious to get from Roosevelt a huge grant of billions of dollars for post-war use. While Churchill, Roosevelt held out against any more money. Ultimately Roosevelt yielded and agreed to give England another six billion dollars. Churchill agreed to the Morgenthau Plan. |
| − | The French later bitterly assailed the Plan. They understood too well the importance of the Ruhr to the French economy. James Byrnes, later Secretary of State, declined the post of High Commissioner for Germany because he wanted nothing to do with such a plan. The contents of the Morgenthau Plan leaked to the papers and Roosevelt became alarmed at the violence of the reaction, a fine evidence of the fundamentally decent nature of the majority of Americans. Roosevelt tried to deny what he had done. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 3, Ch. 11, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eleven___How_Germany_s_F.htm ''How Germany's Fate Was Sealed''].</ref> | + | The French later bitterly assailed the Plan. They understood too well the importance of the Ruhr to the French economy. James Byrnes, later Secretary of State, declined the post of High Commissioner for Germany because he wanted nothing to do with such a plan. The contents of the Morgenthau Plan leaked to the papers and Roosevelt became alarmed at the violence of the reaction, a fine evidence of the fundamentally decent nature of the majority of Americans. Roosevelt tried to deny what he had done. <ref>''The Roosevelt Myth'', John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 3, Ch. 11, [http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/fdrmyth_Chapter_Eleven___How_Germany_s_F.htm ''How Germany's Fate Was Sealed'']</ref> |