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Big three meet in 1945.... Yalta Conference...
Big three meet in 1945.... Yalta Conference...
Item # 547968
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February 14, 1945
THE SPRINGFIELD UNION, Massachusetts, February 14, 1945
* Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Yalta Conference... World War II era
This 14 page newspaper has a six column headline on the front page: "U. S. to Prevent Russian-British Rivalry in Europe, Byrnes Says" with subheads. Other news of the day throughout including much on World War II.
Light browning with some margin wear, otherwise in good condition.
source: wikipedia: On 4 February 1945 the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) convened at Yalta, on the Crimean Peninsula. 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, in 1945.
Premier Stalin refused to travel farther West than the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea because he could not fly. 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 proper; 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 Bullitt's thesis prophesied the “flow of the Red amoeba into Europe”—Stalin's only weakness—given that the Red Army physically controlled most of Eastern Europe and had penetrated the Third Reich's eastern borders, while the Allies were occupied with invading France. At the time of the Conference, Marshall Georgy Zhukov was forty miles from Berlin. Moreover, Roosevelt hoped for Stalin's commitment to participate in the United Nations. Concerning the first item of the Soviet agenda—Eastern Europe—Poland immediately arose; Stalin stated the Russian case so:
“For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honour, but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Poland is a question of life and death for Russia.”
Accordingly, Stalin stipulated some of his Polish demands were not negotiable: the Russians would keep the territory from eastern Poland, and Poland was to compensate for that by extending its Western borders, thereby forcing out millions of Germans. 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.[citation needed]
Roosevelt was concerned about the USSR entering the Pacific War with the Allies. One Communist precondition for said declaration of war against Japan was a USA–USSR recognition of Mongolian independence from China. The agreement was effected without diplomatic negotiations with China. Some six months after the Yalta Conference, the USSR formally declared 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 2007.
A Big Three meeting room.
A Big Three meeting room.
Roosevelt met Stalin's price hoping the USSR could be dealt via the United Nations Later, right-wing Americans considered the agreements effected in the Yalta Conference as a 'sellout' for 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. It is possible that Roosevelt's failing health (Yalta was his last major conference before dying of cerebral hemorrhage) was partially to blame for such poor judgment. At the time the Red Army occupied and held much of Eastern Europe with military three times greater than U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's forces.
The Big Three had ratified previous agreements about the postwar division of Germany: three zones of occupation, one for each dominant nation (France later received one 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 decided that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries 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."
[edit] Major points
Key points of the meeting are as follows:
* There was an 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, prior to 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 Control Council.
* Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification.
* German reparations were not the form of forced labor. (see also Eisenhower and German POWs)
* 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 reorganize 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. This effectively excluded the Polish government-in-exile that had evacuated in 1939.
* 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.
* Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the United Nations once it was agreed that each of the five permanent members of the Security Council would have veto power. Churchill lobbied heavily to get France in the Security Council.
* Stalin agreed to enter the fight against the Empire of Japan within 90 days after the defeat of Germany. The Soviet Union would receive the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kurile islands after the defeat of Japan.
* A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to be set up. The purpose was to decide whether Germany was to be divided into several nations, and if so, what borders and inter-relationships the new German states were to have.
Category: The 20th Century
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