Lead-up to Tehran
FDR letter to Stalin suggesting a bi-lateral meeting (without Prime Minister Churchill), April 1, 1942
Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff Memo, confirming the importance of Russia in the war against Germany and Japan, and to peace in the postwar world, December 1, 1942
Stalin to FDR, February 16, 1943, reitering his demand for a Second Front in NW Europe as soon as possible.
A political cartoon from the London Evening Standard, September 2, 1943, suggesting it is high time for a meeting among the "Big Three," Roosevelt. Churchill and Stalin.
Stalin to FDR September 8, 1943, confirming his willingness to meet with FDR and Churchill, and suggesting Iran (Tehran) as the location of the conference.
FDR to Stalin, November 8, 1943. After voicing strong objections to the idea of a metting in Tehran due to its distance from Washington, FDR finally agrees.
Draft letter from FDR to the PM of the Polish-Government-in-Exile, indicating US support for the "re-establishment" of Poland, later amended at the request of the State Department.
US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, urges FDR to remove the reference to the "reestablishment of Poland due to the dispute with Russia over Poland's future borders.
A US propoganda poster urging Americans to support the Russian war effort.
Photo of the USS Iowa, the battleship that would transport FDR to Tehran
Notes from FDR's diary, November 19, 1943, indicating a US destroyer's accidental firing of a torpedo at the USS Iowa, which fortunately missed its target!
Instructions on how to avoid the Tehran Tummy - and Soviet espionage!
Key Issue: One of the major issues that the Allies would confront at both Tehran and Yalta concerned Poland. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union gained control of Eastern Poland when Germany invaded Poland as part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In response to the German Soviet 1939 invasion, a Polish government in exile took root in London to work towards an independent Poland. After the German attack on Russia in 1941, the Soviets recognized the Polish government in exile. However, in April of 1943, the Germans unearthed of a mass grave hiding the massacre of 14,000 Polish officers, which the London Polish government blamed on Russia. This led Stalin to terminate communication with the London Poles and eventually establish a puppet government in Lublin, Poland, leaving the Anglo Americans with a dilemma: do they recognize the Lublin Poles or the London Polish government? A second issue involved the borders of Poland. Stalin wanted the eastern border of Poland to follow the Curzon Line, the same border that had been established in the Nazi Soviet Pact. The London Poles staunchly opposed this, but both Churchill and Roosevelt were more flexible on this issue, provided Poland be compensated with additional territory in the west.