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The Yalta Conference
The second and final summit meeting attended by the Big Three was held in early February
1945, at Yalta on the Black Sea. Roosevelt's advisers included chief political troubleshooter
Harry Hopkins, and the new secretary of state, Edward. R. Stettinius, Jr. The war against Hitler
was entering its final stages, with the Allies closing in on Germany and the Red Army
controlling much of Eastern Europe. The conflict in the Pacific, however, was far from won. One
of Roosevelt's objectives at Yalta was to get a firm commitment from Stalin that the Soviet
Union would enter the fight against Japan once the Nazis were defeated. Shortly before they met,
Churchill warned Roosevelt that Yalta "may well be a fateful conference."
Among the major issues settled at Yalta by the Big Three were the partition of Germany and
future war reparations. It was agreed that Germany was to be divided into four zones of
occupation, with a French sector carved out of the British and American zones. Berlin also was
divided into four zones, although the city was wholly within the Soviet sector. Churchill was the
driving force behind the decision to include France—he was deeply concerned that the United
States would withdraw from European affairs as it had after the First World War. The Big Three
also agreed to a reparations commission and tentatively allotted 50 percent of about $20 billion
to the Soviet Union. This was a compromise. Stalin wanted punitive reparations to permanently
eliminate Germany's military and economic capabilities, Churchill contrastingly sought
sufficient reparations that would not destroy the German economy, while Roosevelt wished to
avoid the mistakes of the Versailles Treaty.
The United Nations was another major topic discussed at Yalta. The Dumbarton Oaks
Conference left several significant procedural and organizational issues unresolved. Stalin, for
example, pushed for an unrestricted veto to prevent even the discussion of certain subjects.
Roosevelt and Churchill prevailed, however. It was decided that the permanent members of the
Security Council could not stifle debate, but they could veto any substantive action by the
General Assembly. The Big Three further agreed that the first meeting of the United Nations
would be held in San Francisco, in late April.
The fate of Poland was the most difficult problem faced by the Allied leaders at Yalta. Stalin
made it clear that the issue was "a matter of life and death for the Soviet Union." The chief point
of contention was recognition of either the Polish government-in-exile operating in London, or
the provisional government based in Lublin that was dominated by communists. To further
complicate the situation, the Red Army was occupying Poland, and Stalin wanted the post-war
boundaries to be moved westward to compensate Poland for the eastern territory annexed by the
Soviet Union. Roosevelt and Churchill, bowing to military reality, conceded on the boundary
issue and acknowledged the communist domination of the Polish government. Yet, the western
Allied leaders gained some concessions. Stalin agreed that the Lublin government would include
Poles from "abroad" and pledged to hold "free and unfettered elections as soon as possible."
Roosevelt allowed Stalin to dominate the discussions pertaining to Poland because he
desperately wanted the Soviets to join the fight against Japan. American military analysts
estimated that there were two million Japanese troops on the home islands, and an equal number
on the Asian mainland. The atomic bomb was still in the developmental stage when the Big
Three met at Yalta, and FDR believed that Soviet participation in any military invasion or naval
blockade of Japan was essential to victory.
For his part, Stalin expected to receive territorial concessions for entering the war in the Pacific
within "two to three months" after the surrender of Germany. The Soviets were promised the
Kurile Islands, the southern half of Sakhalin Island, Port Arthur (Darien), and the South
Manchurian Railroad. Stalin, in turn, agreed to recognize the Nationalist Chinese government led
by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), which was engaged in a bitter civil war against Mao Zedong's
communists.
At the conclusion of the Yalta Conference, the Allied leaders approved the Declaration of
Liberated Europe. Spurred by Roosevelt, the Big Three agreed that post-war "interim
governmental authorities" were to be "broadly representative of all democratic elements in the
population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of
Governments responsive to the will of the people." The Declaration, coupled with the promise of
a United Nations organization to maintain world peace, contributed to the general spirit of
hopeful optimism that gripped western leaders following the Yalta Conference. President
Roosevelt informed the Congress, after his return to the United States, that the era of "spheres of
influence and balances of power" was ended.
The apparent solidarity and good will that permeated the Yalta Conference soon faded. In light
of the ensuing Cold War, the post-war agreements negotiated by the Big Three remain
controversial. Some historians equate Yalta with Munich and appeasement; others blame
Roosevelt's deteriorating health for his failure to take a hard enough line against Stalin. The
military situation in Europe, however, and the desire to bring the Soviets into the fight against
Japan, called for compromise. Most of the settlements reached at Yalta—especially those
pertaining to Eastern Europe—employed language vague enough to allow the Soviets to violate
the spirit if not the letter of the agreements. Under the circumstances, however, there was little
short of war that the U.S. and Britain could do about it.