Editing Tehran Conference (section)

==Proceedings==
[[File:Allied leaders at the 1943 Tehran Conference.jpg|alt=Tehran, Iran, Dec. 1943—Front row: Marshal Stalin, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill on the portico of the Soviet Embassy—Back row: General H.H. Arnold, Chief of the U.S. Army Air Force; General Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Admiral Cunningham, First Sea Lord; Admiral William Leahy, Chief of staff to President Roosevelt, during the Tehran Conference|thumb|Tehran, Iran, Dec. 1943—Front row: Marshal Stalin, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill on the portico of the Soviet Embassy—Back row: General H.H. Arnold, Chief of the U.S. Army Air Force; General Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Admiral Cunningham, First Sea Lord; Admiral William Leahy, Chief of staff to President Roosevelt, during the Tehran Conference]]
The conference was to convene at 16:00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin had arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, who was brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue. Roosevelt, who had traveled {{convert|7000|mi|km|-3|order=flip|abbr=off}} to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met. Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later.<ref name="Overy pp245–246">{{cite book| last = Overy| first = Richard| title = Why the Allies Won| url = https://archive.org/details/whyallieswon00over_637| url-access = limited| year = 1996| publisher = W.W. Norton & Company| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-03925-2| pages = [https://archive.org/details/whyallieswon00over_637/page/n279 245]–246}}</ref> According to Roosevelt's interpreter, Charles Bohlen, Roosevelt was accompanied by [[Harry Hopkins]], who had served as Roosevelt's personal emissary to Churchill, and [[W. Averell Harriman]], the [[list of ambassadors of the United States to Russia|U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union]].  Stalin was accompanied by [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs]] [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] and military leader [[Kliment Voroshilov]].  Churchill brought [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] [[Anthony Eden]] his CGS [[Alanbrooke]],  chief military assistant [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|Hastings Ismay]] plus Dill, Cunningham, Portal, Boyle, and his interpreter Arthur Birse. Three Western women attended: Churchill's daughter Sarah, Averell Harriman's daughter Kathleen and Roosevelt's daughter Anna Boettiger.

[[File:Shah with FDR.jpeg|thumb|[[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|The Shah of Iran]], shortly after his [[Reza Shah|father's]] forced abdication during the [[Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran]], meeting with American president [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] during the Conference]]

[[File:Shahstalinmolotov.JPG|thumb|right|The Shah of Iran (center), pictured to the right of [[Joseph Stalin]] at the Tehran Conference (1943)]]

[[File:Cairo and Teheran conferences.ogv|thumb|Footage from the Cairo and Tehran conferences]]
As Stalin had been advocating for a second front since 1941, he was very pleased and felt that he had accomplished his principal goal for the meeting. Moving on, Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan once Germany was defeated:

{{blockquote|Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland's eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. In order to compensate Poland for the resulting loss of territory, the three leaders agreed to move the German-Polish border to the Oder and Neisse rivers. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the [[Potsdam Conference]] of 1945.<ref name="OH43">{{cite web |title=The Tehran Conference, 1943 |work=Milestones 1937–1945 |author=Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf |publisher=U.S. Department of State |year=2016 |access-date=16 April 2016 |archive-date=24 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424092931/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France ([[Operation Overlord]]), as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. Until then, Churchill had advocated the expansion of joint operations of British, American, and [[British Commonwealth|Commonwealth]] forces in the Mediterranean, as opening a new western front had been physically impossible because of a lack of existing shipping routes. That left the Mediterranean and Italy as viable goals for 1943. It was agreed Operation Overlord would be launched by American and British forces by May 1944 and that Stalin would support the Allies with a concurrent major offensive on Germany's eastern front ([[Operation Bagration]]) to divert German forces from northern France.<ref name=USDOS>{{cite web|title=Milestones: 1937–1945|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf|website=Office of the Historian|publisher=US Department of State|access-date=7 June 2014|archive-date=24 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424092931/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Additional offensives were also discussed to complement the undertaking of Operation Overlord, including the possible allied invasion of southern France prior to the landings at Normandy with the goal of drawing German forces away from the northern beaches and even a possible strike at the northern tip of the Adriatic to circumvent the Alps and drive towards Vienna. Either plan would have relied on Allied divisions engaged against the German Army in Italy around the time of the conference.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Churchill, Winston S.|title=Closing the Ring : the Second World War, Volume 5.|date=2010|publisher=RosettaBooks|isbn=978-0-7953-1142-0|oclc=988869581}}</ref>

Churchill argued for the invasion of Italy in 1943, then Overlord in 1944, on the basis that Overlord was physically impossible in 1943 for lack of shipping and that it would be unthinkable to do anything important until it could be launched.<ref>McNeill, W. H. (1953) ''American, Britain and Russia''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 353.</ref> Churchill successfully proposed to Stalin a westward movement of Poland, which Stalin accepted. It gave the Poles industrialized German land to the west but took marshlands to the east. It also provided a territorial buffer to the Soviet Union against invasion. Churchill's plan involved a border along the Oder and the Neisse, which he views to give Poland a fair compensation for the [[Eastern Borderlands]].<ref>{{cite book|title="Westverschiebung" und "Umsiedlung" – Kriegsziele der Alliierten oder Postulat polnischer Politik?|author= Hartenstein, Michael A. |language=de}}</ref>

=== Discussion on Iran and Turkey ===

[[Iran]] and [[Turkey]] were discussed in detail. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin all agreed to support the Iranian government, as addressed in the following declaration:

{{blockquote |The Three Governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they all agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be possible, having regard to the heavy demands made upon them by their world-wide military operations, and to the world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civilian consumption.<ref>Declaration of the Three Powers Regarding Iran – 1 December 1943</ref>}}

<!-- Iran was a stumbling block for the foreign ministers' meeting on 8 February. The withdrawal of Allied troops and the granting of oil concessions was discussed.
 Iran would go to war with Germany, a common enemy to the three powers. Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt addressed the issue of Iran's special financial needs during the war and the possibility of needing aid after the war. The three powers declared to continue to render aid to Iran. The Iranian government and the three powers reached an accord within all the disagreements to maintain the independence, sovereignty, and integrity of Iran. The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom expected Iran to follow along with the other Allies to establish peace once the war was over, which was agreed upon when the declaration was made.  -->

In addition, the Soviets pledged support to Turkey if it entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies' side before the year was out. In order to encourage Turkey to act as soon as possible, they agreed to make "the offer to take [[Crete]] and the [[Dodecanese]] islands because they are rather close to Turkey."<ref>{{cite book | title = The Tehran, Yalta & Potsdam Conferences – Documents | year = 1969 | publisher = Progress Publishers | location = Moscow | url = https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/tehranyaltapotsdamconferences.pdf | page = 43 | language = en | access-date = 20 May 2023 | archive-date = 18 May 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230518092311/https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/tehranyaltapotsdamconferences.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref>

===Dinner meeting===
Before the Tripartite Dinner Meeting of 29 November 1943 at the Conference, Churchill presented Stalin with a specially commissioned ceremonial sword (the "[[Sword of Stalingrad]]," made in [[Sheffield]]), as a gift from King [[George VI]] to the citizens of Stalingrad and the Soviet people, commemorating [[Battle of Stalingrad|the Soviet victory at Stalingrad]]. When Stalin received the sheathed sword, he took it with both hands and kissed the scabbard. Stalin held the sword by the sheathe and angled the pommel downwards, causing the sword to slide out of its scabbard and fall to the ground. He then handed it to [[Kliment Voroshilov|Marshal Kliment Voroshilov]]<ref name="Beevor-Stalingrad">{{cite book| last = Beevor| first = Antony| author-link = Antony Beevor| title = Stalingrad| isbn = 978-0-14-024985-9| title-link = Stalingrad (Beevor book)| year = 1999| publisher = Penguin}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text="Without [[Military production during World War II#US Wartime Production|American machines]] the [[Allies of World War II|United Nations]] never could have won the war." |author=Joseph Stalin |source=during the dinner at the Tehran Conference.<ref name="Time, 13 December 1943">{{cite magazine| url = https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-13-how-shall-lend-lease-accounts-be-settled-(1945)/how-much-of-what-goods-have-we-sent-to-which-allies/0,8816,791211,00.html| title = One War Won| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]| date = 13 December 1943| access-date = 8 May 2019| archive-date = 8 May 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190508034244/https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-13-how-shall-lend-lease-accounts-be-settled-(1945)/how-much-of-what-goods-have-we-sent-to-which-allies/0,8816,791211,00.html| url-status = live}}</ref><ref>Parker, Dana T. ''Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World {{nobr|War II}},'' p. 8, Cypress, CA, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-9897906-0-4}}.</ref>}}

Stalin proposed executing 50,000 to 100,000 German officers so that Germany could not plan another war. Roosevelt, believing that Stalin was not serious, joked that "maybe 49,000 would be enough." Churchill, however, was outraged and denounced "the cold blooded execution of soldiers who fought for their country." He said that only war criminals should be put on trial in accordance with the [[Moscow Declaration#Declaration on Atrocities|Moscow Document]], which he had written. He stormed out of the room but was brought back in by Stalin, who said he was joking. Churchill was glad Stalin had relented but thought that Stalin had been testing the waters.<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert Gellately |title=Stalin's Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpRdu-ytqNIC&pg=PA177 |year=2013|publisher=Oxford U.P. |pages=177–178|isbn=9780191644887 }}</ref>