Tehran Conference

Tehran Conference, meeting held during World War II by the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union in Tehran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943.

The Tehran conference was the first meeting of the so-called “Big Three”: Marshal Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, US president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill. The conference has generally been perceived as a political victory for Stalin, as he was able to obtain a commitment from the Western Allies to launch the Second Front in France—something he had long demanded. At the same time he was able to leave the Soviet Union with a free hand to pursue its ambitions in Eastern and South Eastern Europe. It is quite possible that Stalin’s successful diplomatic manoeuvres were assisted by the fact that Roosevelt accepted his invitation to take up residence inside the Soviet Legation compound. Once installed there, the president and his aides would undoubtedly have been under surveillance by Soviet intelligence officers.

The main topic for discussion was the way in which US and British forces were to be deployed during 1944. Proposals for operations in the Balkans, or attempts to bring Turkey into the war on the Allied side, were put aside in favour of a major landing in northern France, Operation Overlord (see Normandy Campaign), with a smaller supporting assault in the south of that country. The month of May was set as the date for these operations. Stalin agreed to mount offensives on the Russian Front to coincide with them.

Some consideration was also given at the conference to the political make-up of the post-war world. Both Roosevelt and Churchill independently proposed to Stalin that Poland would effectively be shifted westward, with the Poles getting German territory in exchange for their eastern provinces, which were claimed by the Soviets, becoming part of the USSR. Roosevelt also informally accepted the fact that the Soviet Union would re-occupy the Baltic states, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Finally, the possible partition of a defeated Germany was discussed, although it was decided that this matter should be referred to a commission.