Behind the Closed Doors

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Behind the Closed Doors

• The Conferences

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• During World War II, Allied leaders had many ways
  to stay in contact.
• They could cable or telephone, send written
  communications, and dispatch ambassadors and
  other representatives to conferencesbut there
  was nothing like meeting in person to ensure that
  a point was adequately stressed, to forge a
  friendship, or to understand how to best
  manipulate the other man.
• Great Britains prime minister, Winston
  Churchill, knew this well an intrepid traveler,
  he took long and often dangerous journeys to all
  thirteen of the major conferences.
• U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelts struggle
  with polio made long-distance travel difficult,
  while the Soviet Unions supreme leader, Joseph
  Stalin, involved in a brutal fight against Nazi
  Germany and obsessed with politics in Moscow, was
  even less willing to travel. When he did, he
  refused to stray far from home.

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• Over time, a tenuous bond formed between the
  Allied leaders, since each needed help from the
  others.
• The Soviet Union was desperate for the Western
  Allies to open a second front in Europe, the fate
  of Great Britain depended on the USSRs ability
  to occupy the Nazis on the eastern front, and the
  United States wanted allies in its war against
  Japan.
• A declaration released on December 1, 1943, after
  the three men met for the first time in Teheran,
  proclaimed We leave here, friends in fact, in
  spirit and in purpose. But even as they offered
  mutual assistance and relied on one another,
  their goals for the postwar world were vastly
  different, compromises were inevitable, and the
  Allied leaders remained suspicious about the
  others intentions.

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• Atlantic (codename Riveria

• August 9 12, 1941
• LocationPlacentia Bay, off the Newfoundland
  coast, Canada, aboard two ships the USS Augusta
  and the HMS Prince of WalesParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• Objectives Churchill to draw the United States
  into World War II (a goal that went unrealized)
  and to secure more help for the weary British,
  who had been at war since 1939 Roosevelt to
  cement relations with Churchill, discuss terms
  for Lend-Lease assistance, and strengthen
  domestic support for ties to Great Britain.
• Outcome At this, their first meeting, Churchill
  and Roosevelt began to forge a partnership.
  Roosevelt agreed to provide more Lend-Lease aid
  and to protect British shipping between Canada
  and Iceland.
• The two leaders issued a joint warning to Japan
  about that countrys aggression and sent a note
  to Stalin suggesting the three meet to discuss
  our common effort. They also issued
  the Atlantic Charter, which expressed a
  commitment to the principles of self-governance
  and freedom for every country, called for the
  destruction of the Nazi tyranny, and looked
  forward to free trade, cooperation, and peace
  among all nations.

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• Washington, D.C., 1941-1942 (codename Arcadia)
• December 22, 1941 January 14, 1942
• LocationWashington, D.C.ParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• Objectives Churchill/Roosevelt to discuss the
  Allied defense strategy Churchill to ensure
  that Great Britain continue to receive American
  aid in Europe despite the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Outcome The Declaration of the United Nations
  was created, establishing an Allied alliance to
  oppose the Axis nations it was signed by 26
  countries on January 1, 1942. Churchill and
  Roosevelt also began organizing a coordinated
  Allied war effort, created the combined chiefs of
  staff, and agreed that a supreme commander would
  oversee each theater of war. They resolved that
  the Allies would focus first on defeating Germany
  and formulated plans to invade North Africa.

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• Moscow, 1942
• August 12 17, 1942
• LocationMoscow, Soviet UnionParticipantsWinsto
  n Churchill, Joseph Stalin

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• Objectives Churchill to forge a bond with
  Stalin and reassure him that the Western Allies
  supported the Soviet Union and would eventually
  open a second European front Stalin to receive
  a commitment that the Allies would open a second
  front in Europesoon.
• Outcome In this, their first meeting, Churchill
  could not promise Stalin a second front, but he
  explained how the Western Allies military
  strategy would aid the Soviet Union by bombing
  Germany and invading North Africa.

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• Casablanca (codename Symbol)
• January 14 23, 1943
• LocationCasablanca, MoroccoParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt (Stalin was
  invited but did not attend)

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• Objectives Churchill to promote an invasion of
  Sicily during discussions about future military
  maneuvers Roosevelt to advance a policy
  requiring the Axis to surrender unconditionally
  he had also hoped to meet with Stalin.
• Outcome The Allies planned a combined bombing
  offensive against Germany, agreed to invade
  Sicily, and began preliminary discussions that
  would eventually result in Operation Overlord,or
  the invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in 1944. Two
  leaders of French resistance forces, Charles de
  Gaulle and Henri Giraud, also attended and were
  encouraged to cooperate with each other. At a
  joint press conference after the meeting
  Roosevelt announced that the Allies would pursue
  a policy of unconditional surrender against
  the Axis  nations, calling for the destruction
  of the philosophies in those countries which are
  based on conquest and the subjugation of other
  people.

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• Washington, D.C., 1943 (codename Trident)
• May 11 25, 1943
• LocationWashington, D.C.ParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• Objectives Churchill to ensure that the
  Americans remained focused on the European war
  even as they struggled against Japan in the
  Pacific, and to push for an Allied offensive in
  Italy after the attack on Sicily Roosevelt to
  plan the cross-Channel invasion of France.
• Outcome They discussed operations against Japan
  and the ongoing Battle of the Atlantic and
  debated which strategy to pursue in Europe. In
  the end, they agreed on an Italian offensive,
  with the caveat that it could not jeopardize the
  plans for the cross-Channel attack. They decided
  to delay the cross-Channel invasion of France
  until May 1, 1944, but decided that Mediterranean
  divisions would be transferred to England for
  cross-Channel training starting in November 1943.
  They also agreed to pursue a policy
  ofunconditional surrender against Italy.

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• Quebec, 1943 (codename Quadrant)
• August 17 24, 1943
• LocationQuebec, CanadaParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• Objectives Churchill/Roosevelt to discuss
  global strategy Churchill to press for further
  action in the Mediterranean Roosevelt to
  solidify plans for Operation Overlord the
  cross-Channel attack on France planned for May
  1944.
• Outcome Plans for Operation Overlord progressed
  and were given priority over operations in the
  Mediterranean. They formed a new theater of war
  command in Southeast Asia and authorized
  offensives to further aid the Chinese war effort.
  The Allies also decided to pressure Spain, which
  was providing the Nazis with raw materials and
  manpower, to stop supporting Germany. Churchill
  and Roosevelt signed the secret Quebec Agreement
  about the development of the atomic bomb. In it
  they pledged not to use nuclear weapons against
  one another and not toemploy nuclear weapons
  against another country or share information
  about the weapons with another country, without
  mutual consent.

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• Cairo (codename Sextant)
• November 23 26, December 3 7, 1943
• LocationCairo, EgyptParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chiang Kai-shek
  (China), Ismet Inönü (Turkey)

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• Objectives Churchill to ensure that Operation
  Overlord preparations would not adversely affect
  the Mediterranean offensive, to bring neutral
  Turkey into the war on the Allied side
  Roosevelt to meet with the Chinese.
• Outcome The leaders planned operations in the
  Southeast Asia theater of war . Chiang,
  Churchill, and Roosevelt issued the Cairo
  Declaration on December 1, 1943, stating, The
  Three Great Allies are fighting this war to
  restrain and punish the aggression of Japan.
  They resolved that postwar Japan would be
  stripped of possessions acquired after 1914,
  agreed that China would regain lost territory,
  committed themselves to a free Korea, and vowed
  that Japan will also be expelled from all other
  territories which she has taken by violence and
  greed. Stalin had chosen not to attend the Cairo
  conference because the Soviet Union was not at
  war with Japan, so Churchill and Roosevelt
  interrupted the meeting and traveled to Teheran,
  Persia (Iran) to meet with Stalin. After
  returning from Teheran, they tried unsuccessfully
  to convince Inönü to join the Allies in the war
  and selected U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower as
  the supreme commander for Operation Overlord, the
  invasion of Normandy.

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• Teheran (codename Eureka)
• November 28 December 1, 1943
• LocationTeheran, Persia (Iran)ParticipantsWins
  ton Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph
  Stalin

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• Objectives Churchill to argue the necessity of
  the Mediterranean offensive Roosevelt to meet
  with Stalin in person and build a cooperative
  relationship, to gain Soviet support for the
  primacy of the Normandy invasion over
  Mediterranean operations, and to get Stalin to
  promise to fight Japan Stalin to discuss
  opening a second Allied front in France
  (Operation Overlord) and to gain more postwar
  territory.
• Outcome At last the Big Three met face-to-face
  for the first time. They settled on the timing of
  Operation Overlord and Stalin committed to launch
  an eastern front offensive against Germany that
  coincided with the attack. Stalin pledged to
  assist in the war against Japan after Germany was
  defeated and expressed his wish that, after the
  war, the 1941 USSR borders with Finland and
  Poland be restored. The leaders discussed the
  fate of Poland and the possibility of ceding a
  portion of eastern Germany to Poland to
  compensate for the Polish territory that the USSR
  would claim. They touched on how to handle a
  postwar Germany, and Churchill and Roosevelt
  promised to try to get Turkey to join the
  Allies . In the Declaration of the Three Powers
  released on December 1, 1943, Churchill,
  Roosevelt, and Stalin wrote we are sure that our
  concord will win an enduring Peace.

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• Quebec, 1944 (codename Octagon)
• September 12 16, 1944
• LocationQuebec, CanadaParticipantsWinston
  Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• Objectives Churchill to ensure that Great
  Britain received extended U.S. Lend-Lease supplies
  and to propose dividing Germany into zones of
  occupation Roosevelt to discuss the plan on the
  deindustrializationof Germany created by
  Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau.
• Outcome They determined Allied military strategy
  in Europe and the Pacific. Churchill committed a
  British fleet to help the U.S. in the Pacific war
  and received the assurance of continued
  Lend-Lease aid while Japan remained undefeated.
  The men agreed that Germany would be divided into
  occupation zones after the war. Despite
  Churchills reservations, they alsoapproved the
  Morgenthau plan to obliterate German industry and
  give German machinery to Allied nations the plan
  was later abandoned.

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• Moscow, 1944 (codename Tolstoy)
• October 9 19, 1944
• LocationMoscow, Soviet UnionParticipantsWinsto
  n Churchill, Joseph Stalin

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• Objectives Churchill to ensure the Soviet Union
  would enter the Pacific War, to divide Eastern
  Europe into zones of responsibility  and to
  propose that Stalin meet with leaders of the
  Polishgovernment-in-exile  to reach an agreement
  about Polands post-war borders Stalin to
  expand the Soviet Unions sphere of influence.
• Outcome The U.S. sent Ambassador Averell
  Harriman to this conference as an observer, and
  U.S. General John Deane was also present at
  times. Stalin was briefed on the overall Allied
  strategy, and he agreed that the Soviet Union
  could enter the war against Japan about three
  months after Germanys defeat. The men discussed
  post-war spheres of influence in eastern Europe,
  informally deciding that the Soviet Union would
  have more prominence in Romania and Bulgaria,
  Great Britain would have more in Greece, and
  Yugoslavia and Hungary would be split in half
  (later talks altered this agreement further in
  the USSRs favor). Stalin also agreed to invite
  the head of the Polish government-in-exile,
  Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, to Moscow to discuss the
  future of Poland. Churchill supported Stalins
  proposal to annex a portion of eastern Poland
  while awarding Poland a part of eastern Germanya
  suggestion Mikolajczyk did not agree to. The
  Polish situation was left unresolved.

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• Malta (codename Argonaut, phase 1 Cricket)
• January 30 February 3, 1945
• LocationMaltaParticipantsWinston Churchill,
  Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Objectives The Western Allies  wanted to review
  and hone their combined military strategy in
  Europe as the war with Germany began drawing to a
  close, and to discuss strategy in the Far East.
• Outcome Just before the meeting of the Big
  Three  in Yalta, U.S. secretary of state Edward
  Stettinius and British foreign secretary Anthony
  Eden met to discuss their combined military
  strategy. Churchill and Roosevelt met with one
  another only twice at Malta. As the strategic
  plan for Europe was being developed, the British
  made concessions, agreeing to transfer
  some Allied  divisions in the Mediterranean to
  the western front to fight Germany.

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? starter activity
?
In July 1945, Truman met with Stalin and
Churchill at Potsdam. Think of suitable thought
bubbles for Stalin Truman i.e. what were they
hoping to achieve at the end of the War. ? Think
of a US /USSR caption for this photograph.
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• Objectives Churchill to approve France as one
  of the occupying powers  in Europe and to promote
  democracy in Europe (a goal of Roosevelts as
  well) Roosevelt to settle unresolved issues
  related to the United Nations  with Stalin and to
  ensure that the USSR would enter the war against
  Japan Stalin to guarantee that the Soviet Union
  had a wide sphere of influence  in Eastern
  Europe, to gain more territory for his country,
  and to collect reparations from Germany after the
  wars end.

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• Outcome The leaders coordinated the Western
  Allies European strategy with the Soviet Unions
  activities on the eastern front, but most of this
  conference was devoted to postwar issues rather
  than military strategy. They created the Allied
  Control Commission to oversee the postwar
  division of Germany and confirmed that Germany
  and Berlin would be divided into four zones of
  occupation overseen by France, Great Britain, the
  Soviet Union, and the United States. Polands
  postwar borders were a point of contention, but
  they agreed to give part of Poland to the USSR
  after Stalin promised that free elections would
  be held soon in Poland. The three men signed
  the Declaration on Liberated Europe affirming the
  right of all people to to create democratic
  institutions of their own choice and pledged to
  assist in the earliest possible establishment
  through free elections of Governments responsive
  to the will of the people. Roosevelts concern
  over the war with Japan prompted him to sign a
  secret agreement with Stalin that would give the
  USSR Japanese territory and economic rights in
  Manchuria in exchange for a Soviet declaration of
  war against Japan. Churchill was not informed of
  this agreement.

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• Potsdam (codename Terminal)
• July 17 August 2, 1945
• LocationPotsdam, GermanyParticipantsWinston
  Churchill/Clement Attlee, Joseph Stalin, Harry S.
  Truman

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Potsdam, July-August 1945
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• Objectives Churchill/Attlee to guarantee free
  elections in Poland Stalin to promote the
  USSRs puppet government in Poland and to achieve
  a favorable western Polish border Truman to
  involve the Soviet Union in the Pacific War and
  to insist on Japans unconditional surrender .

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• Outcome After winning the war in Europe, a
  different set of Allied leaders met in Germany.
  U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt had died on
  April 12, 1945, so the United States was
  represented by the new president, Harry S.
  Truman. Also, during this conference, elections
  in Great Britain made Clement Attlee the new
  British prime minister, so he replaced Churchill
  at the talks.The leaders discussed postwar
  Europe and created the Council of Foreign
  Ministers to further resolve European border
  issues and negotiate peace treaties. They
  discussed the fate of defeated Germany and
  scheduled the first war crimes trial. Polands
  western boundary was determined, and the Western
  Allies reluctantly gave the Soviet-controlled
  Polish government more power, while Stalin again
  promised that free elections would be held there
  soon. The Allies considered the surrender terms
  for Japan and on July 26, Great Britain, the
  United States, and China issued the Potsdam
  Declaration . The document limited Japans
  sovereignty to four islands, called for Japanese
  disarmament, insisted on the prosecution of
  Japanese war criminals, mandated that the country
  promote democratic principles, and required the
  nation to be occupied until these terms were met.
  Calling for Japans unconditional surrender,
  the Allies warned that the alternative was
  Japans prompt and utter destruction. With
  British consent, Truman advised Stalin about the
  United States success in testing a new weapon
  of unusual destructive force. Stalin promised to
  enter the Pacific War in August.

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? Your task

• Read Phillips, p.23-4 and
• Give examples of growing tensions between the
  Grand Alliance members at these conferences
• ?List any evidence of areas of agreement

Yalta
Potsdam
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Growing tensions Yalta, Feb 1945

• Terms of the Atlantic Charter upheld liberal
  democratic (not Communist) principles
• Character clashes I dont decry algebra, but I
  prefer arithmatic
• Poland Communist govt in Lublin v. Polish govt
  in exile free elections?
• Death of Roosevelt

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Growing tensions Potsdam, July-Aug 1945

• Personalities Truman used language of a
  Missouri mule driver Churchill ousted by Attlee
• Poland boundary changes, Poles deported,
  Oder-Niesse new W frontier
• Eastern European govt Communist takeovers
• Atomic bomb Manhattan kept secret from Stalin

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? Extension

• Study the extracts your teacher provides and note
  down in different colours evidence that the West
  and evidence the USSR were to blame for rising
  tensions at the wartime conferences

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After Yalta and Potsdam was the glass of
international relations half full or half empty?
One side of the class must make a case that the
conferences achieved very little and indeed
raised tensions, the other side must argue that
they made significant advances given the
potential for disagreement.
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? Extension task

• Produce a case study on the Soviet foreign
  minister, Vyacheslav Molotov

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? Plenary

• List areas of agreement and tension at the Yalta
  Potsdam conferences
• On balance do you think they played a major role
  in increasing Cold War tensions?

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? Homework

• Complete your reading of the extracts
• Note note down evidence of growing tensions
  between the West and USSR.