Negotiations at the Yalta Conference

Paper Summary:

By 1945, as Hitler's Germany was coming to an end, the future of the European continent seemed uncertain. Soviet troops were just forty-five miles outside of Berlin, and the Allied troops were just about to cross the Rhine. The questioned remained: how would the war affect the balance of power and the political landscape in the years to come? On Feb 4, 1945, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Roosevelt met to answer this very question at Yalta, a seaside Crimean resort on the coast of the Black Sea. While the conventional wisdom of modern historians is that Churchill and Roosevelt did not wield their collective power, this paper argues that it was Stalin who failed to realize the opportunities available to him and conceded too much. The paper shows that the negotiations can be viewed from a classic "Power-Interest-Rights" perspective. While Stalin negotiated from a position of power, FDR and Churchill negotiated from positions of rights and interests, respectively. It is the consensus of this paper that Stalin failed to use his dominant position of power, giving Churchill and FDR unnecessary concessions. The paper includes illustrations and tables.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the Yalta Negotiations
Three Approaches to Resolving Differences
Three Allied Leaders
German Dismemberment
German Reparations
The Role of Post-War France
The Polish Question
The United Nations
Final Thoughts
The Negotiation Time Line
Value Creation Worksheet
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"Roosevelt was, above all else, a consummate politician. In fact, he would not meet alone with Churchill to avoid fanning the flames of Stalin's paranoia. Few men could see more clearly their immediate objective; however, his long-term vision was impaired. In 1945, he was the leader of the strongest nation in the world. The U.S. suffered no bombing, no displacement of its population and no hardship compared to the British and Soviets. In addition, the U.S. had an enormous, well-trained military and had almost perfected the atomic bomb. Roosevelt was optimistic, upbeat and knew how to rally the country."

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