Yalta Conference

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Also present are Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, RN, Marshal of the RAF Sir Charles Portal, RAF (both standing behind Churchill); and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, USN, (standing behind Roosevelt).

The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, the re-establishment of nations conquered by Germany.

Contents

The conference

Germany
Territorial changes of Germany
in the 20th Century
Poland
Territorial changes of Poland
in the 20th Century

On 4 February to 11 February 1945 the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta, the Crimea. It was the second of three wartime conferences among the major Allied Power leaders. It had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and it was followed by the Potsdam Conference, which Harry S Truman attended in place of the late Roosevelt, and Clement Attlee attended in place of Churchill, due to general election loss, later in 1945.

Premier Stalin, insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips, rejected Roosevelt's suggestion to meet on the Mediterranean.[1] He offered, instead, to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea. Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference: Roosevelt asked for Soviet support in the U.S. Pacific War against Japan, specifically invading Japan; Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern Europe (specifically Poland); and Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern Europe, as essential to the USSR's national security.

Moreover, all three leaders were trying to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany. In 1943 William Christian Bullitt, Jr.'s thesis prophesied the "flow of the Red amoeba into Europe". The Front Line at the end of December 1943 remained in Russia, but by August 1944 Soviet forces were inside Poland and parts of Romania in their relentless drive West.[2] By the time of the Conference, Marshal Georgy Zhukov was forty miles from Berlin. Stalin's position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. Moreover, Roosevelt had hoped for Stalin's commitment to participate in the United Nations.

Regarding the first item of the Soviet agenda for Eastern Europe, Poland immediately arose; Stalin stated the Soviet case:

“ For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Twice in the last thirty years our enemies, the Germans, have passed through this corridor. It is in Russia’s interest that Poland should be strong and powerful, in a position to shut the door of this corridor by her own force…It is necessary that Poland should be free, independent in power. Therefore, it is not only a question of honor but of life and death for the Soviet state. ”

Accordingly, Stalin stipulated some of his Polish demands were not negotiable: the Russians would keep the territory they had already annexed in eastern Poland, and Poland was to be compensated for that by extending its Western borders at the expense of Germany. Stalin promised free elections in Poland despite the recently-installed Communist puppet government. However the Western Powers soon saw that Stalin would not honour his free elections promise. The elections, held in January 1947 resulted in Poland's official transformation to a socialist state by 1949; they were considered rigged to favour pro-Soviet political parties.

Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies. One Soviet precondition for a declaration of war against Japan was a USA–USSR recognition of Mongolian independence from the then Nationalist China. The agreement was effected without diplomatic negotiations with China. Some six months after the Yalta Conference, the USSR attacked Japanese forces before a formal declaration of war against Japan and the Red Army seized northern parts of the Japanese archipelago. Later this was disputed between Russia and Japan; Russia did not sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan and no separate peace treaty had been signed between Russia and Japan as of 2008.

A Big Three meeting room.

Roosevelt met Stalin's price hoping the USSR could be dealt with via the United Nations. Later, many Americans considered the agreements of the Yalta Conference were a "sellout", encouraging Soviet expansion of influence to Japan and Asia, and because Stalin eventually violated the agreements in forming the Soviet bloc. Furthermore the Soviets had agreed to join the United Nations, given the secret understanding of a voting formula with a veto power for permanent members of the Security Council, thus ensuring that each country could block unwanted decisions.

At the time the Red Army had occupied and held much of Eastern Europe with military three times greater than Allied forces in the West.

It is possible that Roosevelt's failing health was partially to blame for poor judgments. Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commented on Roosevelt's ill health: "He is a very sick man. He has all the symptoms of hardening of the arteries of the brain in an advanced stage, so that I give him only a few months to live".[3] Roosevelt's companions, however, have never admitted to this theory and perceived him perfectly capable of dealing with Stalin. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage two months later.

The Big Three ratified previous agreements about the post-war occupation zones for Germany: three zones of occupation, one for each of the three principal Allies: The Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the U.S.A. (France later received one also, when the USA and the UK ceded parts of their zones). Berlin itself, although in the Russian zone would also be divided into three sectors (and eventually became a Cold War symbol because of the division's realization via the Berlin Wall, built and manned by the Soviet-backed East German government).

Also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries (with the exception of the French government, which was regarded as collaborationist; in Romania and Bulgaria, where the Soviets had already liquidated most of the governments; the Polish government-in-exile was also excluded by Stalin) and that all civilians would be repatriated. Democracies would be established and all countries would hold free elections and European order restored per this statement:

“ The establishment of order in Europe, and the rebuilding of national economic life, must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. ”

Major points

A more casual picture of the Big Three at Yalta

Key points of the meeting are as follows:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Stephen C. Schlesinger, "Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations," (Boulder: Westview Press, 2003). ISBN 0813333245
  2. ↑ Traktuyev, Michael Ivanovich, The Red Army's Drive into Poland in Purnell's History of the Second World War, editor Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Hatfield, UK, 1981, vol.18, p.1920-1929
  3. ↑ Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Conrad Black. 2005, Public Affairs. ISBN 9781586482824. Page 1075.

Further reading

  1. O’Neil, William L. World War II: a Student Companion. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
  2. Persico, Joseph E. Roosevelt’s Secret War. New York: Random House, 2001.
  3. “Portraits of Presidents: Franklin D. Roosevelt.” School Arts Magazine February 1999: 37. Student Research Center. EBSCO Host. Philadelphia. 2 Apr. 2006. Keyword: FDR.
  4. Snyder, Louis L. World War II. New York: Grolier Company, 1981.
  5. Sulzberger, C L. American Heritage New History of World War II. Ed. Stephen E. Ambrose. New York: Viking Penguin, 1998.
  6. Waring, J. G. A student's experience of Yalta
  7. “Yalta Conference.” Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. World Almanac Education Group, 2003. SIRS DISCOVER. Philadelphia. 2 April 2006. Keyword: Yalta Conference.

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