Above all, the meeting aimed to discuss the restoration of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, as the Cold War divided the continent, Yalta had become a hot topic of controversy. To some extent, it has remained controversial. What did their final count look like then? In a large collection of World War II-era documents in the Truman Library archives, a press release dated February 12 is kept in Yalta. It contains a statement by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin on the outcome of the conference. The leaders announced that they had achieved “closer coordination than ever before of the military efforts of the three Allies” and promised to launch “new and even more powerful strikes” against the enemy. “Nazi Germany is doomed,” the statement continued, and the Germans should capitulate to avoid further suffering. Yalta, a seaside resort on Russia`s Black Sea coast in Crimea, was the scene of the second and final war conference between allied “three” warlords Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. It took place between 4 and 11 February 1945 and was intended to decide the final strategy of the war against Germany and Japan and to regulate the future of post-war Europe. President Roosevelt said, “If we try to avoid the fact that we have put a little more emphasis on the Poles in Lublin than on the other two groups from which the new administration is supposed to come, I think we will expose ourselves to accusations that we are trying to reverse the Crimean decision.” Roosevelt acknowledged that, in the words of Admiral William D. Leahy, Yalta`s language was so vague that the Soviets would be able to “extend it from Yalta to Washington without ever technically breaking it.” [20] But the press release and statement are also notable for what they don`t address.
For example, there is no mention of Allied plans in the Pacific theatre of war. At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to let Stalin annex parts of Japanese-occupied Manchuria in exchange for his troops going to war against Japan. Moreover, the Western allies joined Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, undermining their stated goal of installing free governments in Poland and elsewhere in the region. Tragically, the Allies` zeal to end World War II set the stage for a much longer Cold War. Allied leaders came to Yalta knowing that an Allied victory in Europe was virtually inevitable, but less convinced that the Pacific War was coming to an end. The United States and Britain realized that a victory over Japan could require a protracted struggle and saw a great strategic advantage for Soviet participation in the Pacific theater. At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would go to war with Japan, and all three agreed that the Soviets would receive a sphere of influence in Manchuria in exchange for potentially decisive Soviet participation in the Pacific theater of war after Japan`s surrender. These included the southern part of Sakhalin, a lease at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou), a share in the operation of the Manchu Railways and the Kuril Islands. This agreement was the most important concrete achievement of the Yalta Conference.
The three Heads of State and Government tried to establish a programme for the government of post-war Europe and the maintenance of peace between the post-war countries. On the Eastern Front, the front line remained in the Soviet Union in late December 1943, but by August 1944 Soviet forces were in Poland and Romania as part of their westward advance. At the time of the conference, Red Army Marshal Georgi Zhukov`s troops were 40 miles from Berlin. Stalin felt that his position at the conference was so strong that he could dictate the conditions. According to James F. Byrnes, a member of the U.S. delegation and future secretary of state, “it was not about what we would let the Russians do, but about what we could get the Russians to do.” In addition, Roosevelt hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the United Nations. By this time, the Soviet army had fully occupied Poland and held much of Eastern Europe with military power three times greater than that of allied forces in the West.
[Citation needed] The Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been included in the ceasefire agreements. When the political and diplomatic atmosphere of the conference was sometimes tense and lively, the social side on both sides was extremely warm. Anthony Eden later wrote: “In Yalta, the Russians seemed relaxed and, as far as we can judge, friendly.” Yalta was the second of three major war conferences among the three great ones. It was preceded by the Tehran Conference in November 1943, followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. This was preceded by a conference in Moscow in October 1944, in which President Roosevelt did not participate, in which Churchill and Stalin had spoken about the European Western and Soviet spheres of influence. [1] The three Heads of State and Government ratified the agreement of the European Consultative Commission, which set the boundaries of the post-war occupation zones for Germany: three occupation zones, one for each of the three main allies. They also agreed to give France an occupation zone, cut off from the American and British zones, although De Gaulle then refused in principle to accept that the French zone be defined by borders established in his absence. De Gaulle therefore ordered the French armed forces to occupy Stuttgart in addition to the countries previously agreed as a French occupation zone. It only withdrew when it was threatened with suspension of critical U.S.
assets. [11] Churchill at Yalta then argued that the French must necessarily also be full members of the Allied Control Council proposed for Germany. Stalin resisted until Roosevelt supported Churchill`s position, but Stalin persisted in saying that the Frenchman should not be admitted as a full member of the Allied Reparations Commission to be established in Moscow, and only yielded to the Potsdam Conference. Future Secretary of State James Byrnes, who was present at Yalta, wrote in his memoirs that “as far as I can see, the president had prepared little for the conference.” Lord Moran, Churchill`s physician, thought the president was “a very sick man” with only a few months to live. Churchill should complain to Moran: “The president is behaving very badly. He won`t care what we`re trying to do. The Potsdam Conference was held from July to August 1945, in the presence of Clement Attlee (who had replaced Churchill as Prime Minister)[37][38] and President Harry S. Truman (who represented the United States after Roosevelt`s death). [39] In Potsdam, the Soviets rejected allegations that they had interfered in the affairs of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. [34] The conference led to (1) the Potsdam Declaration on the Surrender of Japan[40] and (2) the Potsdam Agreement on the Soviet Annexation of former Polish territory east of the Curzon Line and the provisions to be addressed in a possible final treaty to end World War II for the annexation of parts of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse Line to Poland. and Northeast Prussia to the Soviet Union.
Churchill consults a seriously ill Roosevelt in the conference room of Livadia Palace on February 4, 1945. Churchill`s doctor wrote of Roosevelt: “The president looked old, thin, and marked. He sat there and looked straight ahead, his mouth open, as if he wasn`t taking matters into his own hands. The final agreement stipulated that “the provisional government, which is currently working in Poland, should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the participation of democratic leaders from Poland and Poles abroad.” [18] The Yalta language granted the supremacy of the pro-Soviet government of Lublin in a provisional government, although reorganized. [19] The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimean Conference and codenamed Argonaut, took place from 4 to 11 September. It was the meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union during World War II to discuss the post-war reform of Germany and Europe. The three states were represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Prime Minister Joseph Stalin.
The conference took place near Yalta in Crimea, Soviet Union, in the palaces of Livadia, Yusupov and Vorontsov. By March 1945, it had become clear that Stalin had no intention of keeping his promises regarding political freedom in Poland. Instead, Soviet troops helped suppress any opposition to the provisional government based in Lublin, Poland. When elections were finally held in 1947, they consolidated Poland as one of the first Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, as planned. But with his troops occupying much of Germany and Eastern Europe, Stalin was able to effectively ratify the concessions he had won at Yalta and reduce his advantage over Truman and Churchill (who was replaced by Prime Minister Clement Atlee in the middle of the conference). In March 1946, barely a year after the Yalta Conference, Churchill gave his famous speech declaring that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen on Eastern Europe, signaling the definitive end of cooperation between the Soviet Union and its Western allies and the beginning of the Cold War. Stalin`s interpreter, Vladimir Pavlov, translates a joke for the two leaders during a carefree break in the conference. .