Won. A grateful nation gives thanks for victory. Hundreds of thousands crowd into american churches to give thanks to god. And president truman announced the surrender. This is a solemn but glorious our. I wish that Franklin D Roosevelt had wished had lived to see this day. General eisenhower informs me that the forces of germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all over europe. For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity and into light. Much remains to be done. The victory one in the west the victory won in the west must now be one in the east. The whole world must be cleansed of the people from which half of the world has been freed. Nationsthe peaceloving have demonstrated, and the west, that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us weak. Our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Historic pictures of the last days of the war in europe show american and Russian Troops as they join on the river elbe, splitting german armies into in two. Generals meats, a meaning that spells out certain a meeting that spells out certain german defeat. Seese germany, the allies the stadium of nuremberg, the scene of countless nazi. Rallies with the capture of this city, the American Flag clouds out the swastika. In a symbolic gesture, american troops destroyed the nazi party emblem. [explosions] American History tv and washington journal are marking the end of world war ii. The 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii in the european theater. Ve day. We welcome author and historian rick atkinson, whose final book in the liberation trilogy was published in 2013. The book focusing on the years 1944 and 1945. To get our conversation started on ve day, just a timeline of where things were and how they came from june 6, 1944. The liberation of paris in august 1944. The battle of the bulge in december of that year into 1945. And then to ve day. Take us back to may 7 and a of 1945. How did the war and in europe . In and in europe . It ended with the germans deciding, hitlers having killed himself more than a week earlier, that there was no profit in dragging it out with the russians in berlin. The russians murdering civilians, killing soldiers by the hundreds of thousands. That tryingdecided to make peace with the western allies, the americans in particular, was their best that. They would get a better deal from the western allies than they would get from the soviets. So eisenhower had his headquarters in the french town of roan in northeastern france. Delegation. Sent a there was a lot of palaver about what the conditions would be. They were told in no Uncertain Terms that Unconditional Surrender were the only terms by which the war would end. General who is the operations chief of the German Armed Forces showed up at eisenhowers headquarters, which was at a technical college, a red brick building. Reporters and photographers were there. Onwas 2 00 in the morning may 7, 1945. The articles of surrender had been boiled down to early 200 words. The whole ceremony with cameras rolling lasted only about 10 minutes. The general signed. Eisenhower told him he would personally be held responsible for ensuring that the terms of the capitulation were honored. And that was that. It was going to go into effect the next day. To give time to alert german uboats in the land take and german detachments in norway. The soviets felt it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They did not want the germans to be able to say that they had never been defeated, never capitulated in germany proper. They insisted there be another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin, which happened on may 9. Russians,s, now the considered that to be ve day. For the rest of the world, the surrender went into effect, aid effect on may 8. There was still lower in the pacific. That had a moderating effect on the jubilation that would have taken place otherwise. Dday,hat timeline from did the final victory in europe, based on your research of u. S. Forces, did that happen sooner or longer than they thought . It took longer in the sense that after the battle of the bulge ended at the end of january, 1945, there was widespread understanding that the germans could not recover from this catastrophe, that they had lost the war. What no one in the west could understand is why they would not give up, why they continued to fight, why one little town, one mediumsized city, continued to resist. There were 10,400 american soldiers killed in april, 1945 in germany. That is almost as many as were killed in june, 1944, the month of invasion. It was all virtually to the last gunshot. There wasquence, great consternation about whether they were going to surrender, whether every last german soldier is going to have to be killed, whether more german civilians were going to have to die, and of course whether more allied soldiers were going to have to die. I think there had been hope that the war would end sooner. Our guest is rick atkinson. It is the 75th anniversary of ve day. We would love to hear from you. Heres how the lines are broken out up. 202 7488000 for eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001 mountain and pacific. For those of you who are world war ii veterans or family of them, we ask you to call in on 202 7488002. In your book, the guns at last it is is a worm alarming to read the death tolls. In one story you read you write about the training for ve day alone for dday alone. There was an accident. Looking at the stick six of how many people died overall, 417,000 u. S. Deaths. Side, 8. 8 million to 10. 7 million soviet soldiers. That is not just civilian deaths. Host yeah no. The soviet union had 190 million people. The total deaths were estimated at 26 million. That is a staggering percentage of their total population. Our losses were bad enough. We had 291,000 killed in action. More than 400,000 all deaths. That is about one third of 1 of the American Population of 130 million during world war ii. Staggering as those numbers are for us, they are monumental for the soviets in particular. The germans lose about 7 million people. About 60 Million Deaths worldwide in world war ii. That is a death every three seconds for six years. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of this. It is the greatest catastrophe, selfinflicted catastrophe, and human history. The warorld ending three weeks or so after the death of fdr. Harry truman the president on ve day. What was the effect stateside when that news came . Guest it was a great shock. Anybody looking at the newsreel footage could see that president roosevelt was not a healthy man. He had been dying for months. He had a very arduous trip to malta for a conference with churchill and then they flew to yalta for a conference with stalin, the soviet leader. Anyone who looks at those pictures can tell that here is a man who is dying. His Blood Pressure was in the stratosphere. He had all kinds of health problems. So he has a cerebral hemorrhage at his cottage in georgia april 12, 1945. It is right after lunch. The word spreads quickly. Virtually all americans are aware of it by the afternoon. It is a shock to everyone. He has been president for more than 12 years. He is our war president s. President. He is the president through the darkest days of the depression. There were young men in uniform who really had very little memory of a time when roosevelt was not their leader. And now their commanderinchief. So no one knew who harry truman was for the most part. He was an obscure senator from missouri. He had been a chaplain in the old tillery in the artillery and world war i. He is a cipher to most americans. Fill going to step in and these shoes is something people have difficulty comprehending. Host we have lots of calls waiting for you. Lets go to larry in gallup, new mexico. Good morning. Good morning. My father was in the south pacific. Knowdition, i wanted to how much of the american indians, particularly the comanches and the hopis, how much of your research have you done on them, if any . What was their role during the war . Thank you for the call. Thanks to your dad. American indians were important. First of all, they had a tradition of being warriors. When youretical trying to put together an army. Language. Heir own it was assumed that if a navajo was talking to another another navajo on the radio that even if the japanese could eavesdrop and hear that conversation, which they could, they would not be able to decode it because very few japanese spoke navajo. So the code talkers were important for operational security. There was also a sense that with part of theians as force that it was a comprehensive american force. We wanted all ethnicities to be byented by 1945 aired 1945. It is a painful process getting there, acknowledging there is a rightful role in combat units for black americans, that black americans can be excellent the teskelots as airman and alabama showed. Airmen in alabama showed. They was a feeling that would get some practical skills and a second that it is an affirmation that this is a panamerican war. Host salvatori in annapolis, maryland. Welcome. Caller my dad fought in the pacific. He had Four Brothers who also fought in world war ii. Uncle and another uncle who fought. My dad is a secondgeneration italian american. It appears the prejudice against italian americans was much less than it was against japanese americans. Why . Second question. The dropping of the atomic building of the atomic bomb. I am wondering what impact that had on the outcome of the war. Call. Nk you for the thatnk it is fair to say the prejudices against italian americans were considerably less than they were against japanese americans. Of course ourere adversary until 1943 when they switched sides. But the italians had not launched the kind of attack that had occurred at pearl harbor. I think there is also a racial component to it, frankly. Asians,asier to dislike and the japanese specifically. They were treated dreadfully. We were just talking about native americans in the force. There were of course japanese americans who fought valiantly in italy and france during world war ii. They were exceptionally capable, ferocious fighters. They had something to prove because, back home, there had been tens of thousands of anese interned in camps interred in camps. With respect to the atomic bombs, yes, i think the fact that the two atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki in early august, 1945 brought an end to the war in the pacific. It probably saved hundreds of thousands of american lives. On 1945, 1 ofcurs the reasons the jubilation is not more frenetic is that the battle for okinawa is occurring precisely then. It is a bloodletting. This foreshadows what the toll is going to be in attacking the japanese home islands directly. There were estimates that merrick and casualties could estimatesch is that american casualties could rise to as much as one million. When ve day occurs in may of 1945, no one knows about the atomic bomb except a small group of physicists and others in new mexico. No one is certain whether it is going to work. So those bombs, horrible as they were, in my estimation brings the war to an absolute truncated end. Appropriately, it saves Many American lives. It saves even more japanese lives. The russians were getting ready to come in. The war was going to expand in the pacific. The russians had agreed to be part of it, so the atomic bombs saved a lot of heart ache. Host we are talking about world war ii. Ong us is world war ii the world war ii veterans line is heath from oklahoma. Caller hello. Thank you. On may thethere sixth 1945. 15tht on a ship on may the heading for the pacific. We stopped by the United States. We were flying be 20 fours. 29sere going to train on b and go to the pacific. During that time is when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific. We bombed all of europe from a b24 base in italy. Host great to have you with this this morning. Thank you for your story. How quickly was the military able to pivot to focus on the Pacific Theater . The commanders in europe had been thinking about how to take a good portion of that force and move it to the pacific, how you would do that and who would go. Was it fair for those who had been fighting in north africa in 1942, for them to have to go fight in the pacific . There were plans that have been put together. Had been put together. They were getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland. Mentioned was a four engine was the newest of four engine longrange bombers, which have been doing extraordinary work devastating japan. B29s were used to drop those atomic bombs. So there was a belief that you are going to have to take a good portion of that european force, leaving some behind is an army of occupation as an army of occupation, but the majority was going to end up in the pacific. Host in your piece on the wall street in the wall street journal, there is a photo of eisenhower flashing a v for victory pin. In your first book, you said that in a different photograph of eisenhower, it reflected a certain buoyancy of spirit that served him well. You write in your final book that his fellow commanders, some of the others, were not confident that eisenhower was necessarily the commander type. Host there were frictions, no doubt. The british in particular had doubts about eisenhower, not all of them. He had difficulties through the entire final year of the war with field marshal montgomery, the senior british commander and a fairly difficult character it must be said. There were those who had doubts about eisenhower. There were those who had doubts about him when he became the theater commander in the mediterranean in 1942. He had never heard a shot fired he missed world war i. He had not been deployed. So there was a feeling of, who is this guy and why is he the one to be the Supreme Commander . I have lived metaphorically with eisenhower for 15 years, and my admiration for him grew every year during that span. He was an extraordinarily capable leader. He was an extremely capable political general and that his primary job in that his primary job was to hold together this ally coalition. There were more than 50 countries and what Franklin Roosevelt called the United Nations fighting with United States. Eisenhower was brilliant at Holding Together that coalition against all the centrifugal forces that tried to pull apart every wartime coalition. Morals at the end of the laurels at the end of the war were earned. He showed himself to be a capable commander. Smile of his, which his subordinates said was worth waseast in army corps, fairly earned. Ost lets hear from tom caller hello. The reason im calling is i often wondered who engineered the end of the war. The german admiral . Did he believe that his losses in the atlantic were not caused and, thirdly, what happened to him at the end of the world or . War . Host he was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war. There was not much of the german navy left to command at that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may, 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of the war, there were conversations among those still , actually to the northwest of berlin, about how to go about contacting the allies and how to go about bringing this catastrophe to a close. Hitler, having having killed himself, had essentially tried to pull the temple down around him as he perished, but not everyone was not everyone was suicidal. There had been an agreement that they would send a delegation to allied headquarters, to montgomery. Then they end up at eisenhowers headquarters. All of this is catch as catch can. They are making it up as they go along. They are very aware that every day that passes there are more germans who fall under soviet control. This they are determined to avoid. They are trying to stall as long as they can to allow germans to flee westward. They are fleeing westward by the hundreds of thousands, eventually by the millions, in order to avoid being under soviet control. Made,he final decision is ok, we are going to give up and exceed it to the allied demand for surrender, at that point is a fate accomplish fait acc ompli. Caller i would like to make a comment. This gentleman knows that the war was decided on the eastern front. The western front was like a skirmish compared to the eastern front. If the germans prevailed on the eastern front, there would not have been a western front. There would have been a settlement. The most important issue i went to stay is the russian crime when they enter berlin. Over 2 million german women were raped by those communist animals. I am a german animal in germanamerican. My father is a germanamerican who served in the italian campaign. Host we will get a response from rick atkinson. Thank you for the call. Crimes of there first order committed by the soviets not only in berlin but through all of eastern europe, really, as they overran poland into the eastern precincts of what was then the german empire. The reason the soviets were doing that, besides a fatal lack of discipline, was the feeling that the depravity that the germans had visited on the soviet union, beginning with the invasion in 1941 and extending right on through the end of the german advance, was to be repaid in kind. So it was out of control in ways that no one can for see. This is a good example. Atrocities that committed the germans committed repaid, probably with interest, by the russians. I agree that the russians certainly carried the way of the it is estimated that soviet soldiers killed nine german soldiers for everyone who was killed by british and american troops combined. I mentioned 26th millions soviets dead. It was vital to have them remain as part of it. Host it is the 75th anniversary of ve day. Victory in europe day here on American History and washington journal we are joined by rick atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy. It is a three book series on the war in the european theater. More of your calls and comments coming up momentarily. We are joined next by senator roberts of kansas, chair of the eisenhower memorial commission. The senator from kansas, senator, we saw you yesterday on the floor with your i like ike button. You were a youngster when that happened. Tell us about that. Guest actually, the button says i still like ike. We handed them ou