Churchill made a secret proposal on a scrap of paper dividing post-war Europe into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Stalin examined the scrap of paper and pondered it for a moment, then wrote a large check inblue pencil and handed it back to Churchill. Churchill commented: "Might it not be thought rather cynical if it seemed we had disposed of such issues, so fateful to millions of people, in such an offhand manner? Let us burn the paper." Stalin counselled, however, to save the historic scrap of paper. Churchill called the scrap of paper a "naughty document," which came to be known as the "Percentages agreement." The original proposed 'spheres of influence' that Churchill nominated to Stalin in percentages were: Rumania = 90% Russian and 10% The Others, Greece = 90% Great Britain and Russian 10%, Yugoslavia = 50-50%, Hungary = 50-50%, Bulgaria = 75% Russian and 25% The Others, and Poland is 'briefly discussed before moving on to the Balkans' - according to the 1974 journal article by Albert Resis on the 1953 vol 6 memoirs, Triumph and Tragedy, by Winston Churchill. The known status of Poland after WWII can only assume that Churchill did not press Soviet expectations and capitulated on the matter swiftly. The US ambassador to the USSR representing President F.D. Roosevelt, Averell Harriman, was not present for these discussions, but Churchill informed Roosevelt on 10 October of an agreement after more deliberations, although it is not certain to what extent the true details were made known at this time. Roosevelt was conditionally supportive but was ultimately unhappy with the level of US influence in the Balkans, specifically Bulgaria - which was the sticking point for the discussion, resulting in the original percentages being haggled over for some days. A significant consequence of this agreement is that it created the Cold War, according to Resis, due to its pre-war imperialist thought of Churchill and Stalin, removing the free choice of Eastern Europe and Mediterranean peoples from choosing their own path forward free from NAZI occupation. The proposed percentage division was never mentioned at Yalta Conference or other meetings. Leffler states that it "confirmed that Eastern Europe, initially at least, would lie within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union." However British historian Andrew Roberts states: Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan, and the British agreed to return to the Soviet Union all former Soviet citizens who had been liberated from the Germans.
