Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a diplomatic meeting held and attended by the Allied commanders, the topic of which was to determine the Allies’ strategy for occupying and reconstructing a postwar Europe. The Conference occurred in February of 1945, only 7 months prior to the war’s end. It was held in Yalta, Crimea, and was alternatively known as the Crimea Conference, or the Argonaut Conference, which was its codename. In attendance was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt representing the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill representing the United Kingdom, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, representing the Soviet Union. There were no representatives of any Axis powers present, nor were they invited. The Yalta Conference was continuing the negotiations and planning that began during the Tehran Conference, and all matters being discussed in both conferences were resolved during the final Potsdam Conference. The significance of the Yalta Conference was that it resulted in key agreements including the resolution to obtain the unconditional surrender of Germany, the plan to divide Germany into separate occupied territories to be occupied by the various Allied powers, the enforcement of heavy reparations on Germany, the reestablishment of Poland as a free state, the participation of the Soviet Union in the newly formed United Nations, and the resolution to try the Nazi leaders for their war crimes, which would lead to the Nuremburg Trials. Stalin’s reluctant participation in the Yalta Conference meant the other Allied powers had to compromise heavily in the Soviet Union’s favor, so as to simply keep Stalin at the negotiating table. This led to a widespread belief in Western countries that the United States and Britain caved to Stalin’s demands, which was a matter of key importance in the impending Cold War.