In February 1945, a significant conference, though secretive, involved President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Stalin, a Soviet Premier. Out of the meeting, the resolutions signed by the three influential leaders at the time had a significant effect on the world and the US Navy in particular ( Plokhii, 2009 ). As a result, the conference set the pace for major political events that shaped the world in the subsequent century. The discussion involving the” big three” leaders, was aimed at discussing the world after the Second World War. Therefore, the significance of the diplomatic and political history of the meeting to the world today is considered, as well as how the technical preparations and logistics involving the meeting, and finally, a differentiation of how the winners and losers employed their strategies to represent their vision.
The First World War (FWW) effectively disintegrated the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman empires, and Russia. Since then, Eastern Europe became an area of political interest for the ambitions of the great powers and the emerging new nations. The FWW had seen the defeat of Germany and Russia in their bid to fulfill their vision to instill dominance in Berlin. The result of the political rivalry and interest resulted in a fierce conflict between the Capitalist West and the Communist East ( Woolsey, 2017 ). The rivalry was due to the expansion of the Bolshevik expansion. In this regard, the Soviets aimed at undermining the new regimes and inadvertently turned Belarus, Republic of Ukraine, and Moldova into socialists’ piedmont over Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. Stalin and Hitler’s aim was to divide Eastern Europe was as a result of the rivalry. The Second World War (SWW) arose due to the struggle of Poland’s Independence. Britain and France were involved in countering Germany’s invasion of Poland, where London was considered the restoration of Poland’s independence. However, the Yalta conference put an end to such plans. The Soviet armies had occupied most of Eastern Europe, Churchill unsuccessfully tried to persuade Roosevelt to rally behind the British policy (usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil, 2019). As such, there was the emergence of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe that was effective until the end of the Cold War. Therefore, just like the Atlantic Conference, the leaders’ agenda, goals, and political differences were illuminated to castigate German’s surrender. They focused on Post War reestablishments, and reorganizations, in war-torn Europe in a bid to enforce demilitarization of Germany ( Divine, 2018 ).
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Consequently, a treaty was formed to assist the liberated European states in enhancing conditions of internal peace, facilitating elections, offering emergency reliefs to the distressed people, and formation of interim governments to represent the democratic elements. Today, the Yalta conference can rightly be said to influence the borders of the newly freed nations, with the map of Eastern Europe drawn from the conference ( Divine, 2018 ). Although the borders formed remain intact, the historical and political consequences of the conference in 1945 still form the world’s political elite concern until presently.
The technical and logistics preparations involved in the Yalta meeting, Involved President Roosevelt overreliance on the Navy to get him safely and quietly to such a high-level meeting especially during the SWW. Roosevelt and Churchill had met secretly by the year 1941 at the coast of Newfoundland, while in the same ship, the two influential leaders stroke a partnership and developed a pact, hoping that the League of Nations would buy into their idea (usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil, 2019). They aimed at influencing the political landscape where people would have the right to form governments of their choice. Besides, they wanted to see the restoration of sovereign governments in those who were deprived of them. Subsequently, Roosevelt continued to use the Navy, even when he was ailing, and in 1945, the cruising Ship arrived in Europe by February that year and continued to Crimea by air to join the other leaders for the conference ( Plokhii, 2009 ). Once the gathering had attained a full quorum, debating and bargaining began as the second conference of the SWW. This was after the “Big Three” had previously held a meeting to deliberate on a military operation that would result in the invasion of Operation Overload ( Woolsey, 2017 ).
The victors and Losers of the Yalta conference had brought together political elites with different agendas, interests, and goals. The collaboration of the US and its Western European allies had collaborated to form a novel approach in dealing with defeated Russia, Germany, and their allies. The novel approach was based on the Yalta accord. The victors’ armies strategically took control of Germany, Japan and their respective territories. For instance, the US took control of Japan, collaborating with France, UK, and Western Europe. The USSR, on the other hand, took control of part of Germany, which would become East Germany, while West Germany was taken by the US (Victors and Losers, 2019). The efficiency of the Yalta accord resulted in victors desisting form humiliating the losers, like what the Nazis did with their death camps. Therefore, the US and her collaborators did not punish the losers. Instead, they took the responsibility to rebuild the defeated nations in the hope that they would once again rise with the new inculcated spirit of freedom now characterizing their political, social, and economic cultures.
Therefore, the Yalta Crimea Conference of 1945, between three influential political figures in President Roosevelt, PM Churchill and Generalissimo Stalin, who significantly influenced the shape of the political world particularly after the SWW. The conference set the pace for major political events that shaped the world in the subsequent years, highlighting the significance of the diplomatic and the political history of the meeting to the world today, with a consideration of how the Navy played a big role in orchestrating the secret meetings between the powerful leaders. Also, significantly was the ability of the “winners” to change tact and restore the losers, instead of humiliating the latter, like the previous regimes.
References
Divine, R. A. (2018). The Cold War and the election of 1948. The Journal of American History , 59 (1), 90-110.
How the Yalta Conference Shaped the World | The Sextant. (2019). Retrieved 7 December 2019, from https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2015/02/11/how-the-yalta-conference-shaped-the-world/
Plokhii, S. (2009). Remembering Yalta: The Politics of International History.
Victors and Losers : . (2019). Retrieved 7 December 2019, from https://lsintspl3.wgbh.org/en-us/lesson/postwar/7
Woolsey, L. H. (2017). Poland at Yalta and Dumbarton Oaks. American Journal of International Law , 39 (2), 295-300.
