W. Averell Harriman quotes

Born
November 15, 1891 New York City, U.S.

Died
July 26, 1986.

Occupation
Politician.

W. Averell Harriman was an American Democratic politician.

The war changed everybody’s attitude. We became international almost overnight.
– W. Averell Harriman

I think there are telegrams that may or may not be available, which indicated that I very much had in mind the need to give Europe substantial aid after the war, after Lend-Lease was over.
– W. Averell Harriman

There’s a myth that Roosevelt gave Stalin Eastern Europe. I was with Roosevelt every day at Yalta.
– W. Averell Harriman

Actually I’d had a certain amount of experience in Europe in the inter-war period, as a banker, and I was also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Chamber of Commerce.
– W. Averell Harriman

The Russians often took advantage of Lend-Lease.
– W. Averell Harriman

Much of the aid we first gave to Russia we took away from what we promised Britain. So in a sense, Britain participated in a very real way in the recovery of Russia.
– W. Averell Harriman

We both agreed that Stalin was determined to hold out against the Germans. He told us he’d never let them get to Moscow. But if he was wrong, they’d go back to the Urals and fight. They’d never surrender.
– W. Averell Harriman

We were talking about really getting Europe on its feet. It was our hope that there would be a breakdown of trade barriers in Europe first, and then eventually a breakdown internationally, which would help increase trade with Europe.
– W. Averell Harriman

Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name-calling is left to the foreign ministers.
– W. Averell Harriman

It never occurred to me that we would have as grandiose a program as the Marshall Plan, but I felt that we had to do something to save Europe from economic disaster which would encourage the Communist takeover.
– W. Averell Harriman

The Russians obtained a number of plants under Lend-Lease, which had been authorized by Washington, that I thought were not justified for their war effort. They wanted them for postwar use.
– W. Averell Harriman

Yet the whole preamble of the second authorization act for the Marshall Plan showed the direction Congress was ready to take about breaking down barriers within Europe.
– W. Averell Harriman

Americans wanted to settle all our difficulties with Russia and then go to the movies and drink Coke.
– W. Averell Harriman

Poland, of course, was the key country. I remember Stalin telling me that the plains of Poland were the invasion route of Europe to Russia and always had been, and therefore he had to control Poland.
– W. Averell Harriman