The Yalta Conference Bargain or Sellout?

Yalta Conference The last meeting attended by the wartime “Big Three” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.

Roosevelt’s Agenda Under pressure to secure a commitment from the Soviet Union to enter the war against Japan as soon as possible after the defeat of Germany in Europe.

Roosevelt’s Agenda Desire to win Russian cooperation in the creation of the United Nations Saw as vindication for the failed League of Nations

Stalin’s Agenda Guarantee of secure frontiers for the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe through the creation of buffer zones of friendly socialist governments

Stalin’s Agenda Desire to regain territory lost to Japan in Russo-Japanese War of 1905

Churchill’s Agenda Wanted to insure full representation for all members of the British Commonwealth in the United Nations

Yalta Fact Sheet Restored sovereign rights and self-government to Europe; agreed that signers would assist in guaranteeing free elections, if necessary Divided Germany into four occupation zones to be administered by Great Britain, United States, France and the Soviet Union

Required war reparations from Germany to be distributed according to the losses suffered by Allied countries with the Soviet Union receiving 50%, or $10 billion

Established a new government in Poland, giving it eastern Germany but awarding eastern Poland to Russia Gave Russia the Kurile Islands, the southern half of the Sakhalin Island, an occupation zone in Korea, and privileges in Manchuria, Port Arthur, and Dairen, if Russia entered the Pacific war within three months after the war in Europe ended

Recognized the autonomy of Outer Mongolia from China Established a voting procedure in the Security Council of the United Nations incorporating the concept of a big power veto

Permitted the Russian republics of the Ukraine and White Russia (Byelorussia) separate membership and votes in the United Nations Called an organizational meeting of the United Nations in the United States on April 25, 1945