In 1943, the world anti-fascist war struggle gradually took the initiative in the war. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to facilitate a meeting between the heads of state of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and Stalin even planned to withdraw from the tripartite meeting because the venue of the meeting was not appropriate.
The Big Three and their staff
Churchill is said to have proposed meeting in some deserted place, three tents and negotiations without danger or isolation.
Isolated place
Tehran was chosen in large part because Stalin agreed to meet here. When the news came that Stalin had agreed to go to Tehran, Roosevelt telegraphed Churchill with some excitement, saying, "I just heard that Stalin was going to Tehran... There is no doubt that we will be able to meet him soon. Roosevelt flew to Tehran in a plane, and in fact he hated flying, and in the event of an aircraft accident, his paralyzed legs could not even climb out of the wreckage of the plane. For him, these legs have lost not only the ability to walk, but also to some extent damaged his dignity as president.
Big Three
On November 28, Stalin arrived in Tehran before Roosevelt and Churchill, and Roosevelt arrived on the same day. Roosevelt's invitation to Stalin to dinner was rejected; Stalin's invitation to Roosevelt to stay at the Soviet embassy was also rejected. The KGB then claimed to have discovered an assassination plot against the Big Three and again proposed that the President of the United States live in the Soviet Embassy, this time Roosevelt accepted the offer and checked in to find that at least 3,000 agents were arranged in the Soviet embassy district.
Iron Triangle
At 3 p.m. that day, Roosevelt met with Stalin for the first time. According to an American present, "he [Stalin] was a very short man, but he exuded a certain extraordinarily powerful temperament. Speaking of the Soviet-German war, Stalin said that "the situation is not too good", and Roosevelt asked after listening to it: "But is not the initiative still in the hands of the Soviet Union?" Stalin nodded.
Stalin
November 28 Day 1 Formal Meeting
At 4 p.m., the Big Three summit began, and Roosevelt, the youngest of the three, was only 62 years old at the time, and was elected by two other leaders to preside over the first formal meeting.
Stalin demanded that Britain and the United States land in Western Europe to open a second front; Churchill favored an attack on the Italian island of Sicily. Roosevelt supported Stalin's idea, but noted that the U.S. Navy would not be able to launch an attack across the English Channel until it was strong enough, and proposed a battle plan for crossing the Channel, "Operation Overlord."
banquet
Dinner was arranged by the Us side, and a moment after the meal, the three giants began to talk freely. Stalin had always despised the enemies of Europe, and he criticized the entire ruling class of France as rotten to the bone, not worthy of pity on the Allies, and unworthy of its own territorial territory. Churchill, for his part, had always supported France, but Roosevelt had tried unsuccessfully to reconcile the two sides.
Throughout the process, Stalin gradually took control of the rhythm of the conference and took the opportunity to test the attitude of the United States and Britain towards Germany. When Roosevelt mentioned that Hitler had acted like a deranged madman, Stalin refuted this view directly, bluntly praising Hitler as a man of great wisdom who had seized supreme power in Germany by primitive means.
Hitler
At 10 o'clock in the evening, Roosevelt suddenly fell ill, his trembling hands caressed his forehead, his face sweated like rain, and his staff pushed the president's wheelchair away from the venue. This scene frightened the Americans present, and the terrible consequences would be unimaginable if the president fell in the midst of the storm of the world's strongest.
November 29 The next day of formal meetings
Roosevelt
In the afternoon, Roosevelt had returned to normalcy and immediately began a new round of meetings, focusing on the idea of a post-war United Nations with the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and China as the mainstay, and the participants agreed on this proposal.
The war is ongoing
In subsequent meetings, Stalin brought the subject back to the implementation of Operation Overlord, to which Roosevelt replied that it had yet to be decided. Stalin thought this was a delay and angrily said: "Exactly how to carry out this matter, there is no result here." Immediately and unabashedly rebuked Churchill, Churchill looked back angrily, and the meeting ended in a tit-for-tat contest, after which Churchill scolded: "Damn! ”
Stalin and Churchill
The dinner was arranged by the Soviet side, and after three rounds of drinking, Stalin repeatedly teased and provoked Churchill, saying that Britain and Germany were engaged in secret reconciliation behind their backs, and Churchill refuted it. Roosevelt could not stop Stalin, and simply played with Churchill, which made Stalin laugh wildly.
Churchill and Stalin
During the banquet, Stalin joked that after the war, 50,000 staff officers and technicians of the German General Staff would be shot. In this regard, Churchill made it clear that Britain was opposed to such a proposal. Roosevelt said that he did not support Stalin's 50,000, so he only "shot 49,000 people!" When he learned that this was just Stalin's joke, Churchill withdrew from the venue in annoyance, and was later politely invited back to the venue by Stalin.
November 30 Day 3 Formal Meeting
On the morning of the third day, Stalin showed the bargaining card, declaring that if the United States and Britain failed to open a second european battlefield in 1944 and inserted a knife behind Germany's back to relieve the pressure on the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union would unilaterally make peace with Germany. After this hole card was thrown, the United States and Britain jointly declared Operation Overlord a formal battle plan, with the possibility of attacking southern France in division, while the Soviets promised to launch an offensive against Germany on the Eastern Front in May 1944.
Birthday dinner
The dinner was arranged by the British side, and it was Churchill's 70th birthday, and people were celebrating with their hands intertwined, which was a rare and cheerful moment in the meeting.
December 1 The fourth day of the formal meeting
The meeting focused on The question of Germany and Poland, with the three parties in favour of dividing Germany. Stalin favored the "dismemberment of Germany" and imposed the harshest treatment, strangling fascist militarism to death. On the polish issue, Roosevelt refused to discuss it, and in order to avoid suspicion in the 1944 US presidential election, he wanted to win the votes of six or seven million Polish Americans. Therefore, the British and Soviet sides presided over the discussion of the Polish question.
banquet
In just four days, the meeting agreed on "Operation Overlord", announced the "plan to eliminate the German armed forces", finalized the Baltic States and Germany's post-war fate, and discussed the decision to establish a joint international organization.
Break through Berlin
The Big Three returned
After the meeting, Stalin returned to the Soviet Union; Churchill returned to Britain via Cairo; Roosevelt returned to the United States on December 17 via Cairo, Malta, Sicily, morocco, and then crossed the Atlantic by boat.
Normandy landings
The United States and Britain: In June 1944, the Allied forces forcibly crossed the English Channel and landed in Normandy, opening up the second european battlefield.
Allied Berlin Division
Soviet side: In May 1944, Stalin ordered the Red Army to pursue the "wounded German beast" and "beat it to death in its own cave."