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    "title": "Report, Negotiations Concerning German Reparations, Part I, Yalta Through Potsdam, Research Project Number 143",
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    "ocrText": "TOP SECRET\n- -4 -\nhad undergone in this war had been greater than any\nother power\" he also felt that \"the Soviet Union\nwould get nowhere near the sum \"which it proposed\".\nHe remarked also that there would be no victorious\ncountry so burdened in an economic sense as Great\nBritain and that, therefore, if he could see any\nbenefit to Great Britain in large reparations from\nGermany, he would favor such a course.\n1\nPresident Roosevelt stated that the American\nposition was conditioned by the mistakes of the last\nwar. During the 1920's the United States had loaned\nover $10 billion to Germany and had lost a great deal\nof money as a consequence. He recalled also that we\nhad mistakenly returned German-owned factories in\nthe United States to their German owners after the\nlast war. This time, he stated, he would seek \"the\nnecessary legislation to retain for the United States\nall German property in America\". As to the United\nStates share of reparations in Germany, President\nRoosevelt announced \"the Germans had no capital,\nfactories, or other equipment that the United States\nneeded\" 2\nRegarding the Soviet share, however, the\nPresident stated that he \"would willingly support any\nclaims for Soviet reparations since he felt that the\nGerman standard of living should not be higher than\nthat of the Soviet Union\". He added that just as the\nUnited States was planning to help the United Kingdom\nexpand her export trade, we would also help the Soviet\nUnion \"retain the reparations in kind which she required,\nas well as German manpower to reconstruct the devastated\nregions\". On the other wide, however, the President\nlisted several arguments against the large figure\nproposed by the Soviets:\n(1) Reparations\n¹Ibid.\n2Ibid. , p.17."
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