1945 : Yalta Conference ends
On February 11, 1945, a week of intensive bargaining by the leaders of
the three major Allied powers ends in Yalta, a Soviet resort town on
the Black Sea. It was the second conference of the "Big Three" Allied
leaders--U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin--and the war had
progressed mightily since their last meeting, which had taken place in
Tehran in late 1943.
What was then called the Crimea conference was held at the old summer
palace of Czar Nicholas II on the outskirts of Yalta, now a city in
the independent Ukraine. With victory over Germany three months away,
Churchill and Stalin were more intent on dividing Europe into zones of
political influence than in addressing military considerations.
Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation administered by
the three major powers and France and was to be thoroughly
demilitarized and its war criminals brought to trial. The Soviets were
to administer those European countries they liberated but promised to
hold free elections. The British and Americans would oversee the
transition to democracy in countries such as Italy, Austria, and
Greece.
Final plans were made for the establishment of the United Nations, and
a charter conference was scheduled to begin in San Francisco in April.
A frail President Roosevelt, two months from his death, concentrated
his efforts on gaining Soviet support for the U.S. war effort against
Japan. The secret U.S. atomic bomb project had not yet tested a
weapon, and it was estimated that an amphibious attack against Japan
could cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. After being
assured of an occupation zone in Korea, and possession of Sakhalin
Island and other territories historically disputed between Russia and
Japan, Stalin agreed to enter the Pacific War within two to three
months of Germany's surrender.
Most of the Yalta accords remained secret until after World War II,
and the items that were revealed, such as Allied plans for Germany and
the United Nations, were generally applauded. Roosevelt returned to
the United States exhausted, and when he went to address the U.S.
Congress on Yalta he was no longer strong enough to stand with the
support of braces. In that speech, he called the conference "a turning
point, I hope, in our history, and therefore in the history of the
world." He would not live long enough, however, to see the iron
curtain drop along the lines of division laid out at Yalta. In April,
he traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest and on
April 12 died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
On July 16, the United States successfully tested an atomic bomb in
the New Mexico desert. On August 6, it dropped one of these deadly
weapons on Hiroshima, Japan. Two days later, true to its pledge at
Yalta, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan. The next day, the
United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and the Soviets
launched a massive offensive against the Japanese in Manchuria. On
August 15, the combination of the U.S. atomic attacks and the Soviet
offensive forced a Japanese surrender. At the end of the month, U.S.
troops landed in Japan unopposed.
When the full text of the Yalta agreements were released in the years
following World War II, many criticized Roosevelt and Churchill for
delivering Eastern Europe and North Korea into communist domination by
conceding too much to Stalin at Yalta. The Soviets never allowed free
elections in postwar Eastern Europe, and communist North Korea was
sharply divided from its southern neighbor.
Eastern Europe, liberated and occupied by the Red Army, would have
become Soviet satellites regardless of what had happened at Yalta.
Because of the atomic bomb, however, Soviet assistance was not needed
to defeat the Japanese. Without the Soviet invasion of the Japanese
Empire in the last days of World War II, North Korea and various other
Japanese-held territories that fell under Soviet control undoubtedly
would have come under the sway of the United States. At Yalta,
however, Roosevelt had no guarantee that the atomic bomb would work,
and so he sought Soviet assistance in what was predicted to be the
costly task of subduing Japan. Stalin, more willing than Roosevelt to
sacrifice troops in the hope of territorial gains, happily
accommodated his American ally, and by the end of the war had
considerably increased Soviet influence in East Asia.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1945 : Yalta Conference ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=6804
1858 : Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4756
1970 : The world's fourth space power
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4757
1990 : Nelson Mandela released from prison
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4758
#########################################
On February 11, 1945, a week of intensive bargaining by the leaders of
the three major Allied powers ends in Yalta, a Soviet resort town on
the Black Sea. It was the second conference of the "Big Three" Allied
leaders--U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin--and the war had
progressed mightily since their last meeting, which had taken place in
Tehran in late 1943.
What was then called the Crimea conference was held at the old summer
palace of Czar Nicholas II on the outskirts of Yalta, now a city in
the independent Ukraine. With victory over Germany three months away,
Churchill and Stalin were more intent on dividing Europe into zones of
political influence than in addressing military considerations.
Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation administered by
the three major powers and France and was to be thoroughly
demilitarized and its war criminals brought to trial. The Soviets were
to administer those European countries they liberated but promised to
hold free elections. The British and Americans would oversee the
transition to democracy in countries such as Italy, Austria, and
Greece.
Final plans were made for the establishment of the United Nations, and
a charter conference was scheduled to begin in San Francisco in April.
A frail President Roosevelt, two months from his death, concentrated
his efforts on gaining Soviet support for the U.S. war effort against
Japan. The secret U.S. atomic bomb project had not yet tested a
weapon, and it was estimated that an amphibious attack against Japan
could cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. After being
assured of an occupation zone in Korea, and possession of Sakhalin
Island and other territories historically disputed between Russia and
Japan, Stalin agreed to enter the Pacific War within two to three
months of Germany's surrender.
Most of the Yalta accords remained secret until after World War II,
and the items that were revealed, such as Allied plans for Germany and
the United Nations, were generally applauded. Roosevelt returned to
the United States exhausted, and when he went to address the U.S.
Congress on Yalta he was no longer strong enough to stand with the
support of braces. In that speech, he called the conference "a turning
point, I hope, in our history, and therefore in the history of the
world." He would not live long enough, however, to see the iron
curtain drop along the lines of division laid out at Yalta. In April,
he traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest and on
April 12 died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
On July 16, the United States successfully tested an atomic bomb in
the New Mexico desert. On August 6, it dropped one of these deadly
weapons on Hiroshima, Japan. Two days later, true to its pledge at
Yalta, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan. The next day, the
United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and the Soviets
launched a massive offensive against the Japanese in Manchuria. On
August 15, the combination of the U.S. atomic attacks and the Soviet
offensive forced a Japanese surrender. At the end of the month, U.S.
troops landed in Japan unopposed.
When the full text of the Yalta agreements were released in the years
following World War II, many criticized Roosevelt and Churchill for
delivering Eastern Europe and North Korea into communist domination by
conceding too much to Stalin at Yalta. The Soviets never allowed free
elections in postwar Eastern Europe, and communist North Korea was
sharply divided from its southern neighbor.
Eastern Europe, liberated and occupied by the Red Army, would have
become Soviet satellites regardless of what had happened at Yalta.
Because of the atomic bomb, however, Soviet assistance was not needed
to defeat the Japanese. Without the Soviet invasion of the Japanese
Empire in the last days of World War II, North Korea and various other
Japanese-held territories that fell under Soviet control undoubtedly
would have come under the sway of the United States. At Yalta,
however, Roosevelt had no guarantee that the atomic bomb would work,
and so he sought Soviet assistance in what was predicted to be the
costly task of subduing Japan. Stalin, more willing than Roosevelt to
sacrifice troops in the hope of territorial gains, happily
accommodated his American ally, and by the end of the war had
considerably increased Soviet influence in East Asia.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1945 : Yalta Conference ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=6804
1858 : Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4756
1970 : The world's fourth space power
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4757
1990 : Nelson Mandela released from prison
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4758
#########################################
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