 Beneš's support for the Soviet Union went so far that during his 1943 visit to the US, he argued that the Soviet Union would never be a threat to either Czechoslovakia or Poland.Beneš probably saw the threat of identity loss for Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak people in such a federation as more likely than the threat of a conflict or takeover by the Soviet Union, which he perceived as a benevolent ally.In the end, the Polish federation plan came to naught; instead, the short-term victory with regard to the Central and Eastern European geopolitical scene went to Beneš, and in the long term, it went to his Soviet allies.