Atlantic Conference—August 9 & 10, 1941

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met aboard the U.S.S. Augusta in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to discuss their respective war aims for the Second World War and to outline a postwar international system.

The meeting had been called in response to the situation in Europe by mid-1941. Although Britain had been spared from a German invasion in the fall of 1940 and, with the passage of the U.S. Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, was assured U.S. material support, German forces had inflicted humiliating defeats upon British forces in the Balkans and were threatening to overrun Egypt and close off the Suez Canal.

The Atlantic Charter FDR and Churchill drafted included eight principles that the US and Great Britain would be committed to supporting in the postwar world.

Both countries agreed not to seek territorial expansion; to seek the liberalization of international trade; to establish freedom of the seas, and international labor, economic, and welfare standards. Most importantly, both the United States and Great Britain were committed to supporting the restoration of self-government for all countries that had been occupied during the war and allowing all peoples to choose their own form of government

While the meeting was successful in drafting these aims, it failed to produce the desired results for either leader. Roosevelt had hoped that the Charter might encourage the American people to back U.S. intervention in World War II on behalf of the Allies; however, public opinion remained adamantly opposed to such a policy until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Churchill’s primary goal in attending the Atlantic Conference was “to get the Americans into the war.”

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/86559.htm

Casablanca Conference—January 14-24, 1943

This was a meeting between President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin was unable to attend because the Red Army was engaged in a major offensive against the German army.

The most notable developments at the Conference were the finalization of Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers in 1943, and the promulgation of the policy of “unconditional surrender.”

Roosevelt and Churchill resolved to focus their efforts against Germany in the hopes of drawing German forces away from the Eastern Front, and to increase shipments of supplies to the Soviet Union. While they would begin concentrating forces in England in preparation for an eventual landing in northern France, they decided that first they would concentrate their efforts in the Mediterranean by launching an invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland designed to knock Italy out of the war. They also agreed to strengthen their strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Finally, the leaders agreed on a military effort to eject Japan from Papua New Guinea and to open up new supply lines to China through Japanese-occupied Burma.

On the final day, Roosevelt announced that he and Churchill had decided that the only way to ensure postwar peace was to adopt a policy of unconditional surrender. He stated, however, that the policy of unconditional surrender did not entail the destruction of the populations of the Axis powers but rather, “the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.”

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/88778.htm

Tehran Conference—Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 1943

This was the first meeting of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Roosevelt had expressed confidence that he could use his famous charm to manipulate Stalin. “I can handle that old buzzard,” he once remarked. However, once the conference started, there is no evidence that Stalin was swayed by FDR’s charisma.

The conference settled some major military issues. Despite differences on European strategy, the three leaders agreed upon the timing and scope of Operation Overlord—the cross-channel Allied invasion of France [D-Day] that finally took place in June, 1944—and Stalin promised a Soviet offensive against Germany’s eastern front to coincide with the British-American invasion of France.

Thomas Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People

Bernard Weisberger, et.al, Family Encyclopedia of American History

Bretton Woods & Dumbarton Oaks—1944

At Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, 1300 economic specialists met in July 1944 to lay the economic foundation stones for a peaceful post-war world. The representatives of forty-four nations agreed to a two-pronged plan. First, an international loan fund would help stabilize national currencies. Second, a World Bank would provide loans to needy nations, primarily for reconstruction and economic development.

The political counterpart of Bretton Woods was the Dumbarton Oaks Conference held from August through October 1944 on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The representatives of the Big Four—America, Britain, Russia, and China—hammered out a tentative draft of the charter for the yet-unborn United Nations. Details of the United Nations charter were later worked out the San Francisco conference of 1945.

Thomas Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People

Yalta Conference—February 4-11, 1945

The Yalta Conference took place in the Russian resort town of Yalta among President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Churchill, and Soviet Premier Stalin.

The leaders came to Yalta knowing that Allied victory in Europe was essentially guaranteed but less convinced that the Pacific war was nearing an end. Recognizing that a victory over Japan might require a protracted fight, the United States and Great Britain saw a major strategic advantage to Soviet participation in the Pacific. At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan, and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria upon Japanese surrender. This included the southern portion of Sakhalin Island, a share in the operation of the Manchurian railroads, and the Kurile Islands. This agreement was the major accomplishment of the Yalta Conference.

The Allied leaders also discussed the future of Germany and Eastern Europe and laid plans to create an international forum for resolving disputes, which later became known as the United Nations. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed not only to include France in the postwar governing of Germany, but also that Germany should assume some, but not all, responsibility for reparations following the war.

The Americans and the British generally agreed that future governments of the Eastern European nations bordering the Soviet Union should be “friendly” to the Soviet regime while the Soviets pledged to allow free elections in all territories liberated from Nazi Germany. [The Soviets later broke this pledge.]

In discussions regarding the future of the United Nations, all parties agreed to an American plan concerning voting procedures in the Security Council, which had been expanded to five permanent members following the inclusion of France. Each of these permanent members was to hold a veto on decisions before the Security Council.

Initial reaction to the Yalta agreements was celebratory. Roosevelt and many other Americans viewed it as proof of an international cooperative spirit that would carry over into the postwar period. This sentiment, however, was short lived. With the death of Roosevelt in April, Harry Truman became president. By the end of April, the new administration clashed with the Soviets over their influence in Eastern Europe and over representation in the United Nations. Alarmed at the perceived lack of cooperation on the part of the Soviets, the American public increasingly criticized Roosevelt’s handling of the Yalta negotiations. Some detractors accused him of “handing over” Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia to the Soviet Union at Yalta despite the fact that the Soviets did make substantial concessions.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/93273.htm

Potsdam Conference—July 17-August 2, 1945

The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, to negotiate the terms of the end of World War II.

The major issue at Potsdam was the question of how to handle Germany. At Yalta, the Soviets had pressed for harsh postwar reparations from Germany, half of which would go to the Soviet Union. While Roosevelt had acceded to such demands, new US President Harry Truman [wanted to limit] reparations to avoid a repetition of the situation created by the peace terms established by the Treaty of Versailles following WWI. Many experts agreed that the harsh reparations imposed by the Versailles Treaty had handicapped the German economy.

The Allied leaders agreed that there was to be “a complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany”; all aspects of German industry that could be utilized for military purposes were to be dismantled; all German military forces were to be eliminated; and the production of all military hardware in Germany was forbidden. Furthermore, Germany was to be remade along democratic lines by repeal of all discriminatory laws from the Nazi era and by the arrest and trial of those Germans deemed to be “war criminals.” The reconstitution of a national German Government was, however, postponed and the Allied Control Commission (which was comprised of the four occupying powers: the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) would run the country during the interregnum.

In addition, the United States, Great Britain, and China released the “Potsdam Declaration,” which threatened Japan with “prompt and utter destruction” if it did not immediately surrender (the Soviet Union did not sign the declaration because it had yet to declare war on Japan).

Despite the varied discussions, the Potsdam Conference is perhaps best known for President Truman’s July 24, 1945, conversation with Stalin during which Truman informed the Soviet leader that the US had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Historians have often interpreted Truman’s somewhat firm stance during negotiations to his belief that US nuclear capability would enhance its bargaining power. However, Stalin, who had probably already been informed of US nuclear tests by Soviet intelligence, also held firm in his positions. This situation made negotiations challenging.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/93275.htm