The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka[1]) was a strategy meeting held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran and was the first of the World War II conferences held between all of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom). It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place between 22 and 26 November 1943, and preceded the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. Although all three of the leaders present arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the commitment to the opening of a second front against Nazi Germany by the Western Allies. The conference also addressed relations between the Allies and Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan as well as the envisaged post-war settlement. A separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three's recognition of Iran's independence.
Contents [hide]
1 Prelude
2 Proceedings of the Conference
2.1 Main Conference
2.2 Tripartite dinner meeting
2.3 Decisions reached
3 Results of the conference
4 Alleged assassination plot against the Big Three
5 See also
6 References
6.1 Explanatory notes
6.2 Citations
6.3 Bibliography
6.4 Primary sources
7 Further reading
8 External links
Prelude[edit]
As soon as the German-Soviet war broke out, Churchill offered assistance to the Soviets and an agreement to this effect was signed on 12 July 1941.[2] Delegations had traveled between London and Moscow to arrange the implementation of this support and when the United States joined the war, the delegations included Washington in their meeting venues. A Combined Chiefs of Staff committee was created to coordinate British and American operations as well as their support to the Soviet Union. The consequences of a global war, the absence of a unified Allied strategy and the complexity of allocating resources between Europe and Asia had not yet been sorted out – and soon gave rise to mutual suspicions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.[2] There was the question of opening a second front to alleviate the German pressure on the Soviet Army, the question of mutual assistance – where both Britain and the Soviet Union were looking towards the United States for credit and material support and there was ceaseless tension between the United States and Britain since Washington had no desire to prop-up the British Empire in the event of an Allied Victory.[2] Also, neither the United States nor the British were prepared to give Stalin a free hand in his dealings with Eastern Europe and lastly, there was no common policy on how to deal with Germany after Hitler. Communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries – but it was evident that direct negotiations were urgently needed.[2]
Stalin obsessively wished to control everything in Moscow and was unwilling to risk journeys by air,[3] while Roosevelt was physically disabled and found travel grueling. Churchill was an avid traveler and, as part of an ongoing series of wartime conferences, had already met with Roosevelt five times in North America and twice in Africa and had also held two prior meetings with Stalin in Moscow.[2] In order to engineer this urgently needed meeting, Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also an offer to meet in Baghdad and in Basra – finally agreeing to meet in Tehran in November 1943.[2]
Proceedings of the Conference[edit]
Main Conference[edit]
File:Cairo and Teheran conferences.ogv
Footage from the Cairo and Teheran conferences
The conference was scheduled to convene at 16:00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before the scheduled time, followed by Roosevelt who was wheeled in, in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the
