Here, they also famously decided on opening Stalin's "Second Front." Though they didn't put down on paper the exact places where the front would be open, they did make it clear that they wanted Germany attacked from the South, East and West. Stalin would reveal that he really wanted that Second Front coming from France, much to England's disappointment. This ended up actually happening in June of 1944 (though it was scheduled for May) through Operation Overlord which we learned about in our video about a week back.The foundations of their conference had been established about a month prior to the Tehran Conference by their foreign ministers. They released joint statements about their international goals after the war saying,
"We expressed our determination that our nations shall work together in war and in the peace that will follow."
and
"We came here with hope and determination. We leave here, friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose."
From this conference, Stalin also had confirmed that he would help with the war on Japan as well if necessary, much to Roosevelt's relief, once the war with Germany had been done for about three months.
Several other topics were additionally discussed like the division of Germany after the war, Turkey's involvement in the war, the future of Poland and Finland, and Iran's postwar independence.
FUN FACT! They also celebrated Churchill's birthday (on the 30th of November) during the conference. There was a special dinner at the British Legation that Stalin and Roosevelt both attended. Stalin even raised a toast to Churchill! (And Roosevelt, because you know, don't want people to feel left out or anything.)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/585632/Tehran-Conference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/1/newsid_3535000/3535949.stm
I was also wondering why Tehran? It seemed like a somewhat random place to hold the conference, especially because Iran didn't seem like an important country in the war (as, so far, we haven't heard anything else about it). As far as I can tell (from the little bit of research that I've done) the Allies were occupying Iran for its oil supply. At the conference the Allies announced that they had a "desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iran." In other words, they would leave Iran because they no longer needed oil as they did before (during the war).
ReplyDeletehttps://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf
https://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/iran/briefhistory/body_index.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/585632/Tehran-Conference