Date of Graduation

1982

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Between November 28 and December 1, 1943, Prime Minister Churchill of Great Britain, Premier Stalin of the Soviet Union, and President Roosevelt of the United States met at Tehran, Iran. The purpose of this study is to describe the Tehran Conference and to analyze the decisions reached there. Material is drawn from manuscript collections in the National Archives, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Library of Congress, and the George C. Marshall Research Foundation. The author cites his interview with Governor W. Averell Harriman. Much of the conference was devoted to military issues. The Russians wanted a definite western commitment to Overlord, the naming of a commander, and a supporting assault of France in the south. The allies agreed in principle to launch Overlord during May 1944 with a supporting invasion of southern France, Anvil, on as great a scale as possible, but they postponed naming a commander. In principle, the Russians gained a share of the Italian fleet, and the allies promised to support Tito's Partisans. Anglo-American staffs recommended an advance beyond Rome to the Pisa-Rimini line. The allies agreed that the Pacific theater was important but secondary. The Big Three arbitrarily divided their talks into military and political issues. Without a written agreement, they set Poland's eastern border at the Curzon line, and they discussed the Oder line as the western border. When Stalin and Churchill got embroiled in an argument on reparations, discussion on Finland stalled. Russian absorption of the Baltic states was endorsed at Tehran. The Big Three agreed to divide and occupy Germany. France was treated more as an enemy than as an ally. Roosevelt shared his plan for creating the United Nations with Stalin. Roosevelt and Stalin privately discussed colonialism and China's postwar status. The allies promised to grant Iran independence and territorial sovereignty. The Tehran Conference was a useful experiment in summit diplomacy. Without spelling out in detail all the steps for execution of military and political plans, the Big Three reached agreement in principle and held their alliance together.

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