On May 5, 1945, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin forwards to President Harry S. Truman his response to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill over the latter's concern that the Red Army has arrested 16 Polish peace negotiators.
Churchill, fearing that Soviet forces were already beginning to exact retribution for losses suffered during the war (the Polish negotiators had been charged with “causing the death of 200 Red Army officers”), had written a telegram to President Harry S. Truman. In it, he expressed his concern that Soviet demands of reparations from Germany, and the possibility of ongoing Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe, “constitutes an event in the history of Europe to which there has been no parallel.” Churchill clearly foresaw the “Iron Curtain” beginning to drop. Consequently, he sent a “holding force” to Denmark to cut off any farther westward advance by Soviet troops.
