1.3 The Yalta Conference

In February 1945, flush from his electoral victory at home, Roosevelt traveled to Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea coast, to meet with Churchill and Stalin. He hoped the leaders could resolve a number of thorny questions. The leaders reached  compromises on many issues. Stalin promised to declare war on Japan “two or three months” after Germany’s surrender. In return, Roosevelt accepted Soviet claims to the Kurile Islands in the Far East. Stalin dropped his demands for $20 billion in reparations from Germany, agreeing to discuss the issue further. Roosevelt, who made establishment of a postwar organization a major diplomatic goal, succeeded in gaining Stalin’s support for the creation of the United Nations. All three leaders approved plans for a United Nations Conference in San Francisco in April 1945.

The postwar political status of Poland, which Churchill counted as “the most urgent reason for the Yalta Conference,” caused the most controversy at the conference. Two Polish governments demanded recognition. The British and Americans supported the exiled government living in London. Stalin recognized a Communist-led provisional government based in Lublin. Roosevelt proposed a government comprising representatives of Poland’s five major political parties. The Soviets rejected the proposal, but Stalin agreed to add “democratic elements” to the Lublin regime. To avoid letting arguments over Poland undermine conference harmony, the Allies worked out an agreement that papered over significant  differences with vague, elastic language. Stalin agreed to “free and unfettered elections,” but at an unspecified time in the future.

Roosevelt left Yalta convinced that he had laid the foundation for a peaceful postwar. Years later, critics would charge Roosevelt with selling out to the Russians by acquiescing to Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. But military and political realities had weakened Roosevelt’s bargaining position. By the time of the Yalta Conference, the powerful Red Army already dominated most of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and Roosevelt desperately wanted Russian assistance in defeating the Japanese. Knowing that most Americans wanted an end to the hostilities and a return of U.S. servicemen, the president had little choice but to accept Soviet control and focus on building trust between the two nations.

Roosevelt returned home from Yalta a very ill man. On March 1, the president told Congress that Yalta had been “a great success,” and he asked the American people to support the agreements reached there. On April 12, Roosevelt retreated to his vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia, to try and recoup his energy. Around noon, he slumped in his chair. “I have a terrific headache,” he muttered. A few hours later, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.