Conferences Flashcards
Atlantic Conference, Newfoundland
AUGUST 1941:
Churchill met Roosevelt on USS Augusta in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to discuss their respective war aims and to outline a post-war international system. Roosevelt hoped meeting would galvanise public opinion behind entering conflict… it didn’t, thus Churchill left disappointed. Nevertheless formed 8 principles that USA and Britain would be committed to supporting in post-war world:
Such as 1st point ‘countries seek no aggrandizement’, and more problematic for Chuchill that ‘self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them’.
First Washington Conference
22 DECEMBER 1941 TO 14 JANUARY 1941
Took place two weeks after Pearl Harbour attack…
Decided on ‘Europe First; policy… ie Germany before Japan. Also drafted the Declaration by the United Nations which ensrued that no Allied power would sign a separate peace deal with any of the Axis powers… Formed basis for United Nations. Signed by big 4 (China as well), on 1st January 1942. 22 other naitons signed following day, and more would add names by 1945.
Second Washington Conference
18 JUNE 1942
Not really formal conference, but rather a set of military staff conversations. Discussed how USSR could best be supported. Churchill able to dissuade Americans about Sledgehammer, and persuade them to follow Operation Torch.
Second Moscow Conference
12 AUGUST (first had not been attended by FDR or Churchill and no deciisons were made)
Churchill met Stalin for first time. Couldn’t meet at a mutually convenient location like Churchill wished because Stalin said due to intense pressure Soviets were under he could not leave Moscow.
On way Churchill stopped at Cairo where he relieved Auchinleck.
Roosevelt was not present in Moscow, with American interests instead represented by Averall Harriman, senior diplomat.
12th August started with ‘bleak and sombre’ two hours as Soviet leader recounted problems of eastern front.
Churchill had to inform Stalin that they would not be opening second front in Frace in 1942, but softened blow with details of Operation Torch.
Next day. Stalin launched tirade on Churchill saind that ‘you British are afraid of fighting’… Churchill complained to War Cabinet and Roosevelt stating that he had a ‘most unpleasant discussion’.
Churchill made significant efforts over following days to get across his sincerity of intetntions of Second Front. Won over Stalin slightly who admitted ‘the fact that we have met is of great value’.
Casablanca Conference, Morocco
14-24 JANUARY 1943:
Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, and Henri Giraud met to discuss next phrase of Allied European strategy (Stalin absent due to Stalingrad).
De Gaulle was broadly favoured by British, Giraud favoured by the Americans, partly because Roosevelt believed de Gaulle was a puppet of Churchill’s. Roberts argues this was ‘wrong’. De Gaulle gradually dispossessed of Giraud’s military and political authority such that by mid-1944, Roosevelt recognised de Gaulle as head of the Free French.
Roosevelt pushed for cross-Channel invasion of France. Churchill + Brooke argued that Sicily and Italy was preferable. Italy strategy was agreed as would draw troops away from France and Germany would be weakned fighiting USSR.
Churchill was delighted with conference writing to Clementine ‘it is in every aspect as I wished and proposed’.
Third Washington Conference
11-25 MAY 1943:
Italy + D-day conversations… D-Day here was delayed by 12 months to May 1944, whilst consensus was reached, it was clear that Americans were dominant voice in discussions, marking a passing of the torch.
Quebec Conference
17-24 AUGUST 1943:
Roosevelt and Churchill hosted by Mackenzie King, Canadian PM, HE, Roosevelt did not allow King to participate in discussions of policy, worrying precedent where Allied nations would demand involvement and slow down future decision making.
Date for D-Day set as 1 May. Although Operation Jupiter (Churchill’s brain child and invasion of Norway and Finland should France prove too strong – opposed by all Chiefs of Staff), was still a possibility.
News came through during conference of Sicily fall. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed they would only accept unconditional surrender from Italy.
Cairo Conference
22-26 NOVEMBER 1943:
Roosevelt, churchil, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of China. Largely focused on war in Asia. Agreed a 3-pronged attack against Japs. Focusing efforts on Burma where British had been driven out in 1942.
The so-called ‘Cairo Declaratio’ was issued on 1st December 1943. Declared that the purpose of the war in east was to stop and punish Japanese aggression and reaffirm China’s status as one of the 4 major powers. Japs would ‘be expelled’ from any territory they had invaded, and Korea would ‘in due course’ become ‘free and independent’.
Tehran Conference
NOVEMBER TO DECEMBER 1943:
First time Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill met in person. Took place days after Cairo. 1st June D-Day date set (Stalin happy principal aim achieved). Stalin agreed he would enter war in east after German defeat.
Talin pushed for shifting of Poland’s borders westwards so that its eastern border with SU would match Curzon line (accepted but not formally made until Potsdam).
At one point during conference. Stalin proposed 50-100k German officers executed so that Germany could not plan another war. Roosevelt, joked back ‘maybe 49k would be enough’. Churchill HE was outraged and stormed out the room denouncing the ‘cold blooded execution of soldiers who fought for their country’. Stalin brought him back saying he was only joking, but Churchill suspected he was only testing waters.
Second Quebec Conference
12-16 SEPTEMBER 1944:
Mackenzie King again hosted. Agreements reached on Allied occupation zones in defeated Germany, continued Lend-Lease aid to Britain, and the Morgenthau Plan to demilitarise Germany.
Morgenthau plan = controversial. Involved destruction of most of German industry. Publsihed in press in 1944 Had propaganda value with General George Marshall complaining to Morgenthau that the plan was ‘worth thirty divisions to the Germans’. So much so Roosevelt was forced to disown it, stating that ‘I have not approved anything like that’. So the plan never took effect.
Fourth Moscow Conference
9-19 OCTOBER 1944
Churchill and Stalin met again in Moscow where the two leaders agreed the infamous ‘Percentages agreement’, outlining post-war influence in various eastern European countries. This was the so called ‘naught document’. The percentages were agreed as follows:
* Romania = 90% Russian and 10% The Others,
* Greece = 90% Great Britain (in accord with USA) and Russian 10%,
* Yugoslavia = 50-50%,
* Hungary = 50-50%
* Bulgaria = 75% Russian and 25% The Others
Yalta Conference, Crimea
4-11 FEBRUARY 1945:
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin (final atime), easily largest war time conference with over 750 participants. De Gaulle not invited bitter whom he blamed on Roosevelt, HE Soviets did not want him either.
Clear Allies were to win war so focus on post-war organisation.
Big 3 had different aims:
- Roosevelt wanted Soviet support against Japan and her participation in the United Nations.
- Churchill wanted free and fair elections in the liberated countries of central and eastern Europe, particularly Poland. He also wanted the Soviet to participate in the UN.
- Stalin wanted a Soviet sphere of political influence in eastern Europe.
HE, Given the position of the c. 6 million Red Army troops across most of eastern Europe, including soldiers in every region of Poland, Stalin was in a strong position to dictate terms. As one American advisor observed: ‘It was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could get the Russians to do.’
Some argue that Yalta Conference seemed to indicate warming relationship between Russians and West with one diplomat stating ‘it may really be that we are beginning to get on better terms with the Russians’. HE, only true at superficial level. As Churchill wrote in his memoirs decade later… ‘Our hopeful assumptions were soon to be falsified’.
Potsdam Conference, Berlin:
17 JULY- 2 AUGUST 1945:
Held within Soviet zone of Germany. Roosevelt died in April so new Truman. Churchill only present for part of conference before replaced by Attlee.
Change in personnel changed dynamics. Truman did not share same personal relationship with Stalin as Roosevelt over past 2-years. Also was hard anti-line Communist, determined to stand up to Stalin. Attlee diminutive figure so basically just a power struggle between Americans and Soviets.
Day before conference, Americans successfully tested atomic bomb in Trinity test. During conference Truman hinted he was going to deploy new type of weapon against the Japs. HE, Stalin was well aware of the bomb and telegrammed back to his scientists in Russia to hurry up. This deceit did not help the relationship.
Agreements included:
Regarding Germany:
- Germany would be denazified;
- Both Germany and Austria would be divided into four occupation zones. The same would be true of the capital cities.
- Germany’s eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder-Neisse line, which effectively reduced Germany in size by a quarter from its 1937 borders;
- Reparations were set at c. $23 billion in kind (i.e. in Germany industry, machinery, labour – not money). The Soviets were able to plunder their occupation zone for factories and other raw materials; the Americans instead focused on pursuing the best scientists in Germany (Operation Paperclip).
Regarding Poland:
- The so-called Lublin Poles were to form a Provisional Government of National Unity. Created by the Soviets and recognised by the British and Americans this effectively ended the London-based Polish government-in-exile;
- The western border of Poland (its border with Germany) would shift to the Oder-Neisse line.
Despite the agreements made, the relationship between the West and the Soviet Union was beginning
