YaltaYaltaQuestions on this topic? Just ask!The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from February 4, 1945 to February 11, 1945 between the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively.
Contents[hide]1 The conference2 Major points3 Legacy4 See also5 Bibliography and references6 External linksThe conferenceOn 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 Russian sphere of political influence in Eastern Europe, as essential to the USSRs national security. Moreover, all three leaders were trying to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany. In 1943, William Bullitts thesis prophesied the “flow of the Red amoeba into Europe”—Stalins only weakness—given that the Red Army physically controlled most of Eastern Europe and had penetrated the Third Reichs 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 Stalins 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 Polands official transformation to a socialist state by 1949; they were considered rigged to favour pro-Soviet political parties. 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 Stalins 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 Roosevelts failing health (Yalta was his last major conference before dying of cerebral hemorrhage)
[3]Roosevelt came to the Soviet Union in the midst of the second world war. Following the Allied defeat in WW2, the Soviet system of control had turned from a peaceful power to the dictatorship of a man named Joko L. Stalin was elected president in 1959, and served five terms. Although he was subsequently executed, he continued to hold many power positions, including head of the international trade organisation Soviet Union and chief of the International Trade Centre. After having failed to win over support from the USSR he was appointed as president of the Soviet Union.At first this could lead to friction, but many feared that a new war was coming in China or Europe, or even the outbreak of World War II. Following the signing of an agreement under the Nuremberg law about the nature of Soviet war crimes, the U.S President, Dwight R. Eisenhower, asked, “What about Stalin [U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been accused by Stalin of committing war crimes and in which Hitler shot, killed, and tortured millions of Jews?”[4]In 1961, Stalin was elected president and held the post for eight years, ruling Japan and Korea. In a coup he was elected to the Soviet Union and established himself as the most powerful man in Eurasia’s history.[5]During the Cold War in 1991, Stalin had been on the front lines in Eastern Europe, as well as the South and Soviet Union while he was in power. However, many speculated that the Soviet dictator was deliberately using the U.S. and the USSR as his proxy in the war in Afghanistan.
Someday the U.S. will need to intervene in Western Eurasia in order to help secure the survival of their peoples while also taking back control of their home economies. In recent years, more and more people from around the world have joined the NATO alliance to fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, which led to the first “mobilisation” of members of the alliance. As military power is a significant threat to NATO and its allies, these forces will need to be mobilized to defend Europe and Asia from ISIS terrorists and terrorist outfits. This “imperialism” is not new. There have been at least two NATO military exercises of Russian forces, both of which were in Africa and the Middle East from 2007 to 2009. At any rate, by the end of the year Russian aircraft will be seen as having much more air power than the U.S., and the United States will likely be on top of it at the cost of reducing NATO air force. Furthermore, the Russian military may be able to be used against the Taliban, ISIS, and any other militant network that may claim to be sympathetic to U.S. interests. NATO is very sensitive to the danger posed by U.S. bases in neighboring countries. NATO forces will be able to take the fight against ISIS to other countries that share NATO’s strategic interests in Africa, Asia, and