Many experts agreed that the harsh reparations imposed by the Versailles Treaty had handicapped the German economy and fueled the rise of the Nazis. Despite numerous disagreements, the Allied leaders did manage to conclude some agreements at Potsdam. For example, the negotiators confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation. The reconstitution of a national German Government was, however, postponed indefinitely, and the Allied Control Commission which was comprised of four occupying powers, the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union would run the country during the interregnum.
One of the most controversial matters addressed at the Potsdam Conference dealt with the revision of the German-Soviet-Polish borders and the expulsion of several million Germans from the disputed territories. In exchange for the territory it lost to the Soviet Union following the readjustment of the Soviet-Polish border, Poland received a large swath of German territory and began to deport the German residents of the territories in question, as did other nations that were host to large German minority populations.
Conference participants also agreed to revise the Montreux Convention, which gave Turkey sole control over the Turkish Straits. A sharp confrontation ensues as Molotov launches a barrage of objections. When Molotov finishes, Churchill begins. Ignoring the previous charade about being unable to invite Polish leaders to Yalta, Molotov responds blandly that it is very hard to resolve the Polish question without participation of the Poles themselves.
Roosevelt suggests that, since all agree on the need for free elections, the only remaining issue is how Poland should be governed until then. Stalin, speaking at greater length than usual, rejects the US proposals. The sympathies of the Poles, he claims, lie with those who stayed in the country and suffered under a brutal occupation, rather than with those who left.
Returning the debate to elections in Poland, Roosevelt asks how soon they could be held. Stalin again has conceded nothing. His complexion is grey. However, Roosevelt has less than an hour to rest and change before departing for the grand dinner Stalin is hosting that night at the Yusupov. The inevitable toasts begin. For the translators it is a hard night at the end of a long, hard day.
We talk, we eat and drink, and we enjoy ourselves. But meanwhile our three interpreters … have to work, and their work is not easy. They have no time to eat or drink. We rely on them to transmit our ideas to each other. I propose a toast to our interpreters.
You have nothing to lose but your audience! Surely there is enough fire in you. The dinner does not finish until after midnight. Stettinius goes to bed with the UN still on his mind.
My mind races with enthusiasm and freshness. Francis Hotel, each filling its purpose. I see the golden sunshine, and as I lie here on the shores of the Black Sea in the Crimea, I can almost feel the fresh and invigorating air from the Pacific.
He tells Stettinius to reflect further. Roosevelt also says US public support for the UN will be hard to win if the Polish problem remains unresolved and asks him to prepare fresh proposals. 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.
The secret U. 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. Congress on Yalta he was no longer strong enough to stand with the support of braces.
In April, he traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest and on April 12 died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
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. At the end of the month, U. 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.
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