24.4 Allied Cooperation and the Making of the Peace

Roosevelt and Churchill meeting resulting in the Atlantic Charter

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at Yalta, February 1945

Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Soviet Black Sea resort town of Yalta. With the Allied war efforts in Europe and Asia rapidly moving to victory, the "Big Three" needed to address serious problems posed by the collapse of Axis power. Each came to Yalta with his own set of objectives.

Churchill was anxious to prevent Soviet domination of Poland. Knowing that the US would probably withdraw its troops from Europe as soon as possible once the war there was won, Churchill wanted France to play a role in the future occupation of Germany. He also came with the intent to protect and restore the British Empire in Asia.

Roosevelt wanted the others to approve the plans for the new United Nations. Like Churchill, he hoped to prevent Soviet control of Poland. FDR also wanted the others to recognize China as a great power in the postwar world. And, it was extremely important to Roosevelt that the USSR join the war against Japan.

Stalin wanted the others to accept a Soviet-influenced Poland. He also wanted Germany made weak and powerless and forced to pay reparations for war damages. In return for a Soviet declaration of war against Japan, he wanted territorial and other concessions for the USSR in East Asia.

The Yalta Agreements centered on four main points: Germany, Poland (and Eastern Europe), the war against Japan, and the United Nations. In each case the agreements were general principles all pending continued future discussions to work out the specifics.

Germany

1) temporary division into four zones of Allied occupation – British, French, and American in western

Germany; Soviet in eastern Germany. The city of Berlin (inside the Soviet zone) would also be divided

into four occupation zones.

2) Demilitarization: German armies would be disarmed and disbanded; German war industries would be

dismantled.

3) De-Nazification: The Allies would seek the elimination of the Nazi presence and influence in German life.

Leading Nazis would be arrested, imprisoned, and tried as war criminals.

4) Democratization: The Allies would cooperate to reconstruct Germany as a democratic nation with a unified

economic, political, and social structure.

5) Reparations: It was agreed in principle that Germany would pay reparations. (Stalin had demanded $20 billion

of which half would go to the USSR.)

Poland and Eastern Europe The major issue to be resolved at Yalta was the status of Poland. It was agreed that the Poles must determine for themselves their legitimate government through "free and unfettered elections" to be held as soon as possible. Stalin had insisted that the new Polish government be the Communist-oriented Lublin Poles. This was unacceptable to Churchill and Roosevelt as they wanted to see a government based on the democratic London Poles. (Poland had been a democracy prior to the 1939 German and Soviet occupation and partitions.)

The question of Poland's boundaries was also controversial. Stalin argued (correctly) that Poland had been the historic route for invasions of Russia and wanted the boundaries moved westward to the Oder-Neisse rivers (formerly German territory). For the rest of Eastern Europe it was agreed that in those countries liberated from Fascist rule, there would be complete independence and free elections. (Both Churchill and Roosevelt realized, however, that as most of the rest of Eastern Europe was already under Soviet military occupation, free elections in those countries would be symbolic at best.)

The War with Japan The Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of the surrender of Germany. Soviet forces could occupy Manchuria and the northern half of Korea. In return, the USSR would receive South Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands from Japan, and, pending the agreement of China, the rights to railroad concessions in Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula and treaty port privileges at Darien (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lushun). For strategic reasons, this agreement was not part of the public announcement of the Yalta accords.

The United Nations The Dumbarton Oaks plan for the UN was approved as were plans for an international conference to be held in San Francisco to establish the UN. Stalin accepted a Security Council that would include France and China among the five permanent members (US, USSR, Britain, France, and China) and wherein each of the five would have veto power in votes taken on substantive issues. In regard to representation, it was agreed that the USSR would have three seats in the General Assembly (USSR, The Ukraine, and Byelorussia)

The decisions reached at Yalta would have profound a effect on the future of both the United States and the Soviet Union and are seen by most historians as underlying the Cold War relationship that would develop between the two powers.

The San Francisco Conference, April - June 1945

Representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco and approved the final version of the Charter of the United Nations Organization. Deliberations centered on such issues as: which government (the London Poles or the Lublin - Communist - Poles) was the legitimate government of Poland? Should Argentina (a Fascist country) have representation? How would the veto power be used? What of the British and French Empires? How would they be represented? These and other controversial matters were worked out and the Charter was approved. The UN would come into existence upon ratification of the 50th member. That came when Yugoslavia's government approved the Charter in October

In ratifying the Charter, member nations agreed to the following purposes of the UN:

1) to maintain international peace and the security of all nations.

2) to promote equality of rights and the self-determination of peoples.

3) to promote international cooperation.

4) to encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without

discrimination based on race, sex, language, or religion.

The Potsdam Conference, July - August 1945

Attlee, Truman, and Stalin at Potsdam, July 1945

The new US President Harry Truman met with Stalin and Churchill at Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. While the meetings were in progress at Potsdam, Churchill's Conservative Party lost its majority in parliamentary elections in Britain, causing him to resign as Prime Minister. He was replaced at the conference by the new Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Labour Party). Also, while at Potsdam, Truman received the news of the successful secret test of the atomic bomb. This news he shared with Churchill (and Attlee), but Stalin was not informed. The major decisions and agreements made at Potsdam were as follows.

Germany It was agreed that military governors would administer the four occupation zones and that occupied Germany would be treated as a single economic unit. A reparations plan was worked out (but it would prove impossible to implement and was later dropped). The Yalta principles on demilitarization and de-Nazification were reaffirmed. The former German city of Königsberg (in East Prussia) would be ceded to the USSR. The Foreign Ministers Council (see below) would meet in periodic conferences to develop cooperative policies and programs and review progress towards German reconstruction and reunification.

Poland It was clear that Stalin had no intention whatsoever of relinquishing the Soviet hold over Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe, yet the Yalta principles on "free and unfettered elections" in Poland were reaffirmed. The Oder-Neisse line was confirmed as the temporary western boundary of Poland.

The War with Japan Stalin again affirmed that the USSR would declare war against Japan as pledged at Yalta. The Soviet promise was not made public. At the end of the Conference a joint American-British statement, the Potsdam Declaration, was issued calling upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face further devastation.

Italy was permitted to join the United Nations.

Foreign Ministers' Council It was agreed that the foreign ministers of Britain, France, US, and USSR would meet as a council to further discuss and settle other issues considered at Potsdam. These included...

1) German reconstruction and reunification.

2) peace treaties with Germany's former allies: Italy, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland. (Known as the Paris treaties these were completed by 1947.)

3) the withdrawal of Allied troops from Iran.

4) the international control of the Dardanelles (Turkish Straits). (This was wanted by Stalin and opposed by

Truman and Churchill.)

5) the possible internationalization of major inland navigable waterways, namely the Danube River. (This was

wanted by Truman and Churchill and opposed by Stalin.)

6) the future status of Italy's former colonies: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, and Italian Somaliland (today, Somalia).

Sources for Allied Cooperation and the Making of the Peace

Ambrose, Stephen. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938. New York: Penguin, 1991.

Ganley, Albert C. et al. After Hiroshima. New York: Longman, 1985.

Katz, Catherine Grace. The Daughters of Yalta; The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War. New York: Harper Collins, 2020.

Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Paterson, Thomas et al. American Foreign Policy: A History since 1900. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1991.