WAR TIME CONFERENCES

WAR TIME CONFERENCES

There are three important wartime conferences in Second World War:
Cairo Conference.
Tehran conference.
Yalta Conference.

Cairo Conference

The Cairo Conference (code named ‘SEXTANT’) of November 22-26,1943, held in Cairo, Egypt, addressed the Allied position against Japan during Second World War and made decisions about post war Asia. President Franklin Roosvelt of USA, Prime minister Winston Churchill of UK, and Generallisimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China attended the meeting.

The Cairo declaration was signed on 27 November 1943, and released in Cairo Communiqué through radio on 1 December 1943, stating the Allies intentions to continue deploying brutal military force until Japan’s unconditional surrender. The three main clauses of the Cairo Declaration are that “Japan be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914”, “all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as, Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to Republic of China”, and that “in due course Korea shall become free and independent”.

The legitimacy of the Cairo Declaration has been challenged by the Taiwan independence in recent years.
Tehran Conference

The Tehran Conference (code named EUREKA) was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosvelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943 in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference among the Big three (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom) in which Stalin present. It succeeded the Cairo Conference and was followed by Yalta conference and Postdam conferences. The chief discussion was centered on the opening of a second front in Western Europe. At the same time a separate protocol pledged the three countries to recognize Iran’s independence. Most importantly the conference was organized to plan the final strategy for the war against the Nazi Germans and its Allies.

Major Conclusions

1. An agreement was made stating that the Partisans of Yugoslavia should be supported by supplies and equipment and also by commando operations.
2. It was agreed that it would be most desirable if Turkey should come in to war on the side of the Allies before the end of the year.
3. If Turkey found themselves at war, the Soviet Union was to support them.
4. Took note on November 30 that operation overlord would be launched during May 1944, in junction with an operation against southern France.
5. It was agreed that the military staff of the Three powers should from then on keep in close touch with each other.
6. Britain and USA promised Stalin that they would send troops to Western Europe. It was agreed that they would arrive in spring of 1944.
7. At the insistence of Stalin, the borders of post-war Poland were determined along the Oder and Neisse rivers and the Curzon line.
8. A United Nations Organization was tentatively agreed to.
9. The Soviet Union agreed to wage war against Japan once Germany was defeated.

Overview The Allied leaders –Roosvelt, Stalin, and Churchill –were known as the “Big three” because of the might if the nations they represented and their peaceful collaboration during World War II. These three leaders met together only twice during World War II, but they when they did confer, their decisions changed the course of history.
The first 2 of the conferences, the Tehran conference, took place in Tehran, Iran. The Tehran conference was the first three power conference of World War II, so the first thing the United States and Great Britain did was to ensure full co operation and assistance from the Soviet Union for any and all war policies. Stalin agreed, but a price: Roosvelt, Churchill, and Stalin then moved to more important matters, mainly Operation Overlord was scheduled to begin in May 1944, in conjunction with the Soviet attack on Germany’s eastern border. The attacks would combine the force of Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and numerous other countries, and would later be known as “D-DAY”, the series of battles that decided the War’s end. The Big three spent days wrangling about when Operation Overlord should take place, who should command it, and where operations should begin.
Next, Roosvelt gave Stalin a pledge that he had been waiting for since June 1941: that the Anglo Americans would open a second front in France in the spring of 1944. This was Stalin’s major political objective of the war, so he was well satisfied. Roosvelt, Churchill, and Stalin also concurred that the Axis powers would face unconditional surrender, and that once defeated, the nations in league with the Axis powers would be divided in to territories to be controlled by the USSR, the USA, and the UK. In regard to common alliances and international relations, Iran and Turkey were mainly discussed. Roosvelt, Churchill, and Stalin all agreed to support Iran’s government as addressed in the following declaration:
The three governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they all agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be possible, having regard to the heavy demands made up on them by their world wide military operations, and to the world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civil consumption.

Declaration of the Three Powers

Declaration of the 3 powers, December 1, 1943 “ We the president of the United States, the Prime minister of Great Britain, and the premier of Soviet Union, have met these four days past, in this, the capital of our Ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy.”





Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference, some times called the Crimea conference and code named the Argonaut conference, was the war time meeting from February 4,1945 between the heads of government of the United states, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union- Franklin D.Roosvelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, respectively.

Overview

On the 4th of February 1945 the Big three (Roosvelt, Churchill, and Stalin) convened at Yalta, on the Crimean Peninsula. It was the second of the large wartime conferences, proceeded by Tehran in 1943, and succeeded by Potsdam later in 1945.
Each of the 3 powers brought his own agenda to the Yalta conference. Roosvelt was lobbying for Soviet support in the Pacific war concerning the invasion of the empire of Japan; Churchill was pressing for free elections and democratic institutions in Eastern Europe, while Stalin was attempting to establish a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe which the Soviets thought was essential to Soviet national security. Additionally all three of them were trying to establish an agenda as to how to govern post war Germany.
The Big three had ratified the previous agreements about the post war division of Germany: there were to be three zones of occupation, one zone for each of the three dominant nations (France would later get a portion when the USA & Great Britain divided up parts of their zones and gave them to France). Berlin itself, although within the Soviet zone, would also be divided in to three sectors, and would eventually become a major symbol of the Cold war because of the division of the city due to the infamous Berlin Wall, constructed constructed and manned by the Soviet-backed Communist East German Government.
The Big three had further decided that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. Democracies would be established; all territories would hold free elections and order would be restored to Europe, as declared in the following official 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


 There was the agreement that the priority would be the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war , Germany would be split into four occupied zones, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well, prior unification of Germany.

 Stalin agreed to let France have the fourth occupation zone in Germany and Austria, carved out from the British and American zones. France would also be granted a seat in the Allied Council.

 Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification.

 Creation of an allied reparation council with its seat in Moscow.


 The status of Poland was discussed, but was complicated by the fact that Poland was at this time under the control of the Red Army. It was agreed to re organize the provisionary Polish government that had been set up by the Red Army through the inclusion of other groups such as the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity and to have democratic elections.

 The Polish Eastern border would follow the Curzon line, and Poland would receive substantial territorial compensation in the west from Germany, although the exact border was to be determined at a later time.

 Citizens of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia were to be handed over to their respective countries, regardless of their consent.

 A “committee on Dismemberment of Germany” was to be set up. The purpose was to decided whether Germany was to be divided in to several nations, and if so, what borders and inter-relationships the new German states were to have.

 A new organization,(the United Nations) should be set up to replace the failed League of Nations.