The ill-fated Big Three summit is bigger in symbolic meaning than it was in actual achievement. The Muddled US Army Signal Corps photo Legend of Yalta By John T. Correll National Archives photo AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2012 107 he war in Europe was not but the legend is muddled. Some of the others flew without protection. From over yet as 1945 began, things attributed to the conference hap- the landing field at Saki, 85 miles from but the outcome was not in pened there. Some didn’t. However, it is Yalta, the delegations traveled south doubt. The Germans were Yalta that is linked—sometimes fairly, to the “Russian Riviera” by a six-hour in retreat everywhere. The sometimes not—to the beginning of the motorcade over rough roads. Allies were about to enter the Rhineland Cold War and the takeover of eastern Roosevelt and his party were lodged Ton the western front. To the east, the and central Europe by the Soviet Union. about five miles from the small town Soviets were within 400 miles of Berlin. Stalin refused to travel, so war-torn in the 116-room Livadia Palace, built The prewar governments of most Yalta in the Soviet Union was chosen in 1911 as a summer residence for Tsar European nations were defunct, having as the venue. Churchill said, “If we had Nicholas II and his family. More recently, fallen to invasion between 1938 and spent 10 years on research, we could it had been occupied by German Army 1941. Borders had been moved and not have come up with a worse place Group South. Stalin’s headquarters was moved again. Industries, economies, in the world.” just down the shore at Koreiz Palace, and and national infrastructures were in the British were at Vorontsov Palace, ruins. Refugees were a common sight, Coffee? No, Vodka some 12 miles farther along. displaced by war and political turmoil. Yalta offered a panoramic view of the Amenities, especially restrooms, were Germany itself would soon be in the Black Sea from the tip of the Crimean in short supply. Everyone except the most hands of its former enemies. peninsula, not far from Balaclava, where senior individuals lined up to wait their The allied Big Three leaders—Presi- the British Light Brigade charged into turn. In a rare concession to luxury, the dent Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United the “Valley of Death” against Russian Russians brought a double bed down States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill guns in 1854. Yalta was an imperial from Moscow for Churchill, who liked of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph resort in the days of the Romanovs, but to work in bed and spread out his papers. Stalin of the Soviet Union—met at the Germans did not leave much of it Cabbage soup was served every day Yalta in the Crimea on the coast of the standing when they pulled out in April for lunch. For breakfast there was Cream Black Sea Feb. 4-11, 1945, to decide the 1944. The Soviets managed to refurbish of Wheat and butter spiced with garlic. postwar fate of Europe. In eight days, just enough to house the conference One morning, Adm. William D. Leahy, they agreed among themselves on new participants. Roosevelt’s Chief of Staff, asked for egg, governments and boundaries for the The Americans and British, some 700 toast, and coffee. Fifteen minutes later, defeated and liberated nations. of them, gathered in Malta and flew the the waiter brought caviar, ham, smoked Yalta, initially heralded as a success, rest of the way. The transports, mostly fish, and vodka. is mostly remembered today as a failure, C-54 Skymasters, took off singly and The American delegation included se- On the previous page. Top: Livadia made their 1,500-mile journey by night nior administration officials and military Palace, where Roo sevelt was lodged to avoid detection by scattered Luftwaffe leaders. The new Secretary of State, Ed- and most of the Yalta meetings took interceptors still operating in the Balkans. ward R. Stettinius Jr., was a lightweight place. Bottom: The Big Three—(l-r) The aircraft carrying Roosevelt and on foreign policy but was offset by the Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin—pose for photos on a patio at Livadia. Churchill had P-38 fighter escorts. The presence of W. Averell Harriman, the German troops, such as those pictured here in Crimea after being captured by the Russians in 1944, left much of the former RIA Novosti photo Tzarist resort Yalta in ruins. 108 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2012 RIA Novosti photo A Russian artillery crew in Poland able US ambassador to the Soviet Union. of the Big Three. Ravages of chronic in 1945. A USSR puppet government Alger Hiss, a Soviet agent embedded in illness made him look older and he retained control of Poland after the war, the State Department, was also there, but had two months left to live. Despite his despite Stalin’s promises at Yalta of free it does not appear he did any damage frailty, his mental capacity at Yalta was elections. at Yalta. Hiss reported through Soviet not impaired. His political style was military intelligence channels but his intuitive and personal. He saw the Soviet seeking to induce the United States to keepers were not particularly interested Union as an ally rather than a potential enter the war. He did not regard the in the agenda of the conference. threat. Despite cautions from Harriman, principle of self-determination as ap- Churchill led a strong British team he was inclined to trust Stalin. plying to colonies of the British Empire. anchored by his friend and longtime Unlike Roosevelt, Churchill did be- colleague, Foreign Secretary R. Anthony The Atlantic Charter lieve in spheres of influence. He and Sta- Eden. Stalin’s right hand man at Yalta Like many Americans, Roosevelt had lin met bilaterally in Moscow in October was his protégé, V. M. Molotov, the a distaste for “spheres of influence,” the 1944 and settled on a division of influence Foreign Minister. 19th century practice in which strong in the Balkans. By a formula proposed At Stalin’s initiative, conference nations established domination—if not by Churchill, Britain got predominance sessions were held at Livadia for the outright rule—over their weaker neigh- in Greece—traditionally a British sphere convenience of Roosevelt, who was bors. He was committed to the principle of influence—in exchange for Soviet in a wheelchair. The plenary, or main of self-determination and looked forward hegemony in Rumania and Bulgaria. sessions, always chaired by Roosevelt, to the breakup of the European colonial The Russians did not interfere as British began around 4 p.m. and ran until the empires. troops disarmed pro-communist forces early evenings. Diplomatic and military Churchill, 70, had led Britain through in Greece and installed a government members of the delegations held their the darkest days of the war. By 1945, favorable to Britain. own meetings earlier in the day. British power was in decline relative At Yalta, Churchill wanted to pro- The Yalta conference was not paper- to that of the United States, which had vide for a postwar balance of power in work intensive. There was no official more than twice as many forces engaged Europe, offsetting Soviet expansion. record. Each of the nations kept their and had assumed the leadership position An independent Poland, if it could be own notes and contributed to a sum- previously held by the British. Churchill achieved, would be of enormous value. mary joint communiqué at the end. The understood, but he did not like it. With US troops expected to go home looseness of the plenary sessions suited He had joined Roosevelt in 1941 in soon after the victory, Churchill also Roosevelt and Churchill. Both of them proclaiming the Atlantic Charter, which sought to strengthen France to help with liked to talk and often improvised as promised “the right of all peoples to defense of the west. they went along. choose the form of government under Stalin, 66, felt that the Soviet Union At Yalta, Stalin ran rings around them. which they will live.” had carried the war in Europe without At 63, Roosevelt was the youngest At the time, however, Churchill was much help from the Western Allies, who AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2012 109 did not open a second front until D-Day republics in their own right. Roosevelt German-Polish border was deferred, and in 1944. He saw no reason to negotiate agreed, although the extra memberships the border was not set until the final Big about territory the Red Army had taken for the Soviet Union were not disclosed Three meeting at Potsdam in 1945. and now held. From Stalin’s perspec- publicly. France was added as a fifth UN Two groups of Poles were competing tive, freedom for his neighbors was a executive “policeman” and approved as for postwar control. The government security risk. Germany had twice invaded a fourth occupation power in Germany. in exile group operated from London the Soviet Union through Poland. Self- Roosevelt was elated with the success and was supported by the British. The determination for eastern Europe was of his two priorities and wanted to secure Soviets supported the “Lublin Poles,” not part of Stalin’s plan. them from risk. He softened the United so called for the city in eastern Poland The Americans and the British had States position on issues of importance where they began. already revealed they would not risk to Stalin, including the war reparations The Lublin Poles had gained con- the cohesion of the alliance for the sake to be imposed on Germany and the new siderable advantage in 1944 when the of small nations.