Tehran Conference

The Event Meeting of leaders of the Allied Powers in Iran to formulate a strategy to defeat Germany

Date November 28-December 1, 1943

Place Soviet embassy in Tehran (now Teheran), Iran

The Tehran Conference was the first occasion on which U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met as a threesome. Despite considerable tensions, these leaders reached an agreement on a date for an Anglo-American invasion of northern France, and the shape of postwar Europe was also outlined.

By the end of the year 1943, Germany was militarily contained by the Allies. The Anglo-American invasion of southern Italy, with Italy’s subsequent capitulation, and Soviet advances on the eastern front meant that an Allied victory over Germany had become probable. For these reasons, the end of 1943 was an opportune moment for the leaders of the three principalAllied Powers to come together. Iran was chosen as the site of the meeting in part because it afforded safe, though lengthy, journeys for the leaders. Each country had a large legation in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Roosevelt stayed in the Soviet embassy, where the meetings were held, because the American legation was at some distance from the Soviet and British embassies.

Although Roosevelt and Churchill had previously met on a number of occasions, there were still a number of disagreements between them. Churchill wanted to continue the campaign through Italy, while Roosevelt desired a rapid invasion of northern France, the campaign code-named Operation Overlord. Roosevelt did not want himself and Churchill to appear to be pressuring Stalin, and his concerns led some commentators to suggest that Roosevelt betrayed his friendship with Churchill in order to ingratiate himself with Stalin. Several one-to-one meetings were held, but Churchill and Roosevelt both held an equal number of meetings with Stalin. Stalin’s sense of the divisions in the Roosevelt-Churchill relationship encouraged him. Roosevelt also was optimistic, believing he had made a real connection with Stalin.

The Second Front

What Stalin sought from the conference, above all, was a firm commitment from Roosevelt and Churchill on opening a second front in northern France to relieve German pressure on his front line. He did not want a general commitment but insisted on negotiating specific dates for the northern France campaign; he promised that the Soviets would launch an eastern offensive on Germany if he knew the date the western offensive would begin. From the first session on November 28, Stalin made sure this issue was the first item on the agenda, even though Roosevelt was chairing all of the meetings. Stalin challenged Churchill on his reluctance, and he quickly discovered that Roosevelt would side with him against the British leader.

Churchill argued that a sea invasion was a very difficult proposition. He believed the Germans could quickly muster thirty to forty divisions to oppose an invasion of northern France. However, Stalin persisted, and eventually May, 1944, was set as the date for the northern France campaign, which would coincide with an invasion of southern France, for which the troops and landing craft were already in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the Allies would continue up the Italian peninsula.

German Defeat

Stalin was willing to commit Soviet troops to defeat Japan as soon as Germany was defeated. However, he claimed the Soviet army was not strong enough to fight on two fronts. At the time, the Americans believed an invasion from mainland Asia would be the best way to attack Japan, and Roosevelt was relieved to receive Stalin’s commitment to this action.

Churchill was keen for a decision on postwar Poland, as the Polish government-in-exile was based in London, and he felt obliged to bring it some hope for the future. The three leaders agreed that the Soviet Union was to keep the part of Poland already annexed under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, but Poland would receive German territory up to the Oder River in exchange. This plan was acceptable to Roosevelt, who was facing reelection and did not want to lose the Polish vote in the United States.

Churchill also wanted Austria to be treated separately from Germany, and the other two leaders agreed. The Soviets argued that Germany should be divided into at least five parts. Although there was no clear decision on this issue, the three determined that partition of a defeated Germany would be part of the Allied victory.

The shape of a United Nations was also discussed. Stalin and Roosevelt wanted the organization to be a worldwide body, while Churchill favored regional councils. Although the Atlantic Charter of 1941 was still seen as a basis for such an organization, Stalin’s intention to keep the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia was overlooked in the interests of harmony.

Impact

It is difficult to assess the long-term effects of the Tehran Conference. Immediately afterward, the planning of Operation Overlord began at a meeting of the British and Americans at Cairo. However, when the invasion came, it was not met by an immediate Soviet offensive on the eastern front until two weeks later. The invasion of Italy proceeded slowly, and the landings in southern France were not simultaneous with those in the northern part of the country.

In the longer term, the United Nations was organized according to the terms desired by the Soviet Union and the United States, as was the partition of Germany. Poland and Austria were treated according to the three leaders’ agreement, and the Soviets did declare war on Japan after Germany’s defeat.

It is hard to determine if Roosevelt’s actions at the conference encouraged Stalin in his plans for Soviet hegemony in Europe. Each leader subsequently gave rather different accounts of the interpersonal dynamics among the three meeting participants. Roosevelt seemed to be prepared to accommodate Stalin in order to obtain the Soviet Union’s continued participation in the war. Roosevelt’s actions may also have been a well-meant attempt to maintain world unity, but if that was the case, his efforts were a spectacular failure. It was Churchill who envisioned an “Iron Curtain” dividing a postwar Europe, and his prediction proved to be accurate.

Bibliography

Fenby, Jonathan. Alliance: The Inside Story of How Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Won One War and Began Another. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Devotes an entire chapter to the personal relationships that the three leaders developed at Tehran.

Foreign Relations of the United States. Teheran Conference. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1944. The official U.S. report of the conference.

Gardner, Lloyd C. Spheres of Influence: The Great Powers Partition of Europe, from Munich to Yalta. London: John Murray, 1993. Sets the Tehran Conference’s plans for postwar Europe into the wider context of self-determination and spheres of influence.

Harriman, Averell. Special Envoy. New York: Random House, 1975. A perspective on the conference from one of the primary American delegates.

Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Stalin. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2003. Gives valuable perspectives of the conference from the Soviet point of view.