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Yalta, Casablanca, Potsdam
The most important meetings of the Second World War were held between the
United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United
States of America. The most important gatherings of the rulers of these
countries were at Casablanca, in 1943, at Yalta, in 1945, and at Potsdam,
in 1945.
During these meetings, Winston Churchill, representing the UK, Iosif
Stalin, representing the USSR, Franklin Roosevelt and later Harry Truman,
representing the US, decided the fate of the post war world. The
discussions and the agreements of these conferences, as well as the pacts
between the countries shaped the world in the second half of the 20th
century. Also, the three leaders decided what was the price every Axis
countries and their satellites had to pay for war damages.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the UK and the USSR joined
power with the US in order to defeat Hitler and fascist Germany, as well as
Japan. The leaders of these three countries took action, although they also
planned for the future of the world, in the conferences of the Second World
War.
Casablanca was the first of the conferences, in 1943. Stalin, however, did
not attend this meeting. It was at this meeting that the term unconditional
surrender first came about. The leaders agreed that the Axis could only
surrender in an unconditional form.
Iosif Stalin first met Churchill and Roosevelt in Teheran, November and
December 1943. At this conference, it was agreed that the UK and the US
would invade Germany. Also, it was decided that the USSR would help in the
invasion of Japan. Post war Polish frontiers were also discussed at this
time.
German forces were declining by the time the Quebec meeting of August 1944
was held. Here, the leaders stress again plan for defeating Japan. They
also made plans about a free French Government and for dividing Germany
into four parts.
Yalta and 1945 brought the plans for the finalization of the occupation of
Germany and its division into four parts. These were going to be controlled
by Great Britain, United States, The Soviet Union, and France. The three
agreed upon a provisional government for Poland.
A few months after the Yalta conference, Franklin Roosevelt died. Harry
Truman, the vicepresident, assumed the presidency of the United States.
Truman, Stalin, Churchill decided Germany's fate at the Potsdam conference
in August 1945 and issued ultimatum to Japan.
Before all three conferences, the powers made pacts with each other. At
Yalta, Roosevelt gave away Eastern Europe to USSR, although Great Britain
did not agree completely with this. "Critics would accuse Roosevelt of a
"sell-out" at Yalta, of giving away Eastern Europe to Stalin, of "secret
deals" with a ruthless dictator. Bert Andrews in the New York Herald
Examiner wrote about four secret dea |