The 3 Conferences

• Grand Alliance


  Uneasy agreement between polar opposites only united in the goal of removing the Nazis
• Conferences to decide how the alliance would work together and what would happen after the war

  1. Tehran conference in 1943

  2. Yalta conference in 1945

  3. Potsdam conference in 1945
• Goals of the alliance members

  • USA wanted Stalin's support to defeat Japan
  • USSR wanted a second front in Western Europe
  • Britain wanted support in defeating Nazism and defending its empire
• USA and Britain agreed to invade Western Europe in 1944


  This would ease pressure on the USSR who were being invaded by the Nazis
• USSR agreed to support the USA in defeating Japan


  After the Nazis were defeated
• Germany's fate after the war

  • Germany to be split into four zones, each controlled by the USA, Britain, France and USSR
  • Berlin to be split into four zones
  • Nazis to be prosecuted
  • United Nations set up to police disputes between nations
• Stalin wanted Poland to act as a buffer zone


  To prevent future invasion from Germany
• On 7th May 1945, the Nazis surrendered and the war was over
• Roosevelt died and was replaced by Truman


  Truman disliked and distrusted Stalin
• Potsdam conference in 1945

  1. Finalise the future of Germany and Europe

  2. Truman approached the conference aggressively

  3. USA dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the conference
• United Nations


  • Any country allowed to join
  • Five permanent members (Britain, France, USA, USSR, China) had veto power
• Denazification of Germany


  1. Nazi party banned

  2. Evidence of Nazis removed

  3. Nazi leaders tried as war criminals
• Germany's size and reparations

  • Germany reduced in size slightly
  • Germany and Berlin split into four zones
  • USSR assigned to the least wealthy northeast zone
  • Germany to pay reparations in equipment, materials and money
• Stalin wanted to share occupation of Japan

  Truman refused
• USSR started to back out of promises of free elections in Soviet-occupied nations
• Ideologies of the East and West were opposed, each feared the other's influence