Conversations: The Fragile Alliance of WWIIs ‘Big Three,’ w/ Tim Bouverie

In this special episode of History Shorts, host Peter Zablocki sits down with acclaimed British historian and author Tim Bouverie to discuss his compelling new book, Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World. Known for his previous bestseller Appeasing Hitler, Bouverie turns his sharp analytical eye to the uneasy alliance that defeated Nazi Germany but also set the stage for the Cold War.

We dive deep into the fractures, rivalries, and moral compromises that defined the Allied coalition of World War II, exploring how Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin maintained an alliance forged in crisis—and what the cost of that unity was for smaller nations like Poland.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the WWII alliance was “both improbable and incongruous”

• How the Soviet demand for a second front nearly destabilized Allied trust

• Roosevelt’s attempt to personally manage Stalin—and how that affected Churchill

• The Katyn Massacre, the betrayal of Poland, and the moral dilemma of wartime diplomacy

• The infamous Percentages Agreement and Churchill’s realpolitik

• How miscommunication and mistrust laid the groundwork for the Cold War

• Bouverie’s view on the storytelling power of history and the importance of reading fiction

 

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