and his staff foresaw Churchill’s proposal forcing American troops into potentially bloody clashes with the Russians for no valid reason. This is not widely known, but I am convinced that this is one reason Marshall ordered Eisenhower to halt his final attack through Germany on the banks of the river Elbe—and not advance on Berlin—in March 1945, before Eisenhower began the assault from the Rhine River. More important to Marshall, as the Magic Summaries reveal, was ending the war in the Pacific quickly and preventing a last-minute alliance between Russia and Japan.
