The yalta conference
The Yalta conference was a meeting between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union on February 4 through February 11, 1945 in order to make important decisions for what will happen when WWII is finally over. Many important decisions were crafted and agreed upon during this conference. Great Britain and the United States agreed that Russian involvement in the pacific battle with Japan would help bring the war to a close. Stalin agreed to help end the war in exchange for partial soviet influence in part of Manchuria after the Japanese surrender.
Germany and Eastern Europe’s future was also decided during the conference. The three eventually agreed to divide Germany, allowing each to have occupation in their respective region of Germany. Germany was also to be held responsible for WWII and thusly have to pay war reparations, however unlike WWI, Germany was not seen as the only one to blame for the war. Eastern Europe governments told Stalin to look forward to friendly relations between them, as long as the USSR agreed to free elections in the west. Stalin agreed, thinking that Eastern Europe was fond of the communist party. Great Britain, the United States and the USSR agreed to join and expand the United Nations. France was then included into the United Nations and the Big Three decided to allow French occupation of German land. The United Nations would accept all communist government in hopes to ease tensions and not single anyone out. Finally, they discussed and agreed that the five big members would hold the power of voting and veto for the Security Council of the United Nations. The Yalta conference was seen as a huge success for America. The U.S. felt like it had just avoided conflict with Western Europe and had prevented another war. All of America was in celebration. The alliance that the USSR and the United states shared during the war would prevail into post war negotiations. |