Marketplace At Yalta Essay, Research Paper

Marketplace at YaltaDuring an approximate period of forty-two years, the hideous face of communism lay hidden in the shadows behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. It all started in the early 1930’s, when Adolph Hitler seized control of the economically and sociologically bankrupt Republic of Germany, that tried to pull itself out of the whirlwind in which the devastating defeat of World War I left it, not twenty years before. Hitler promising glory and revenge to the impoverished Germans, convinced them to march against the World, thus starting the worst nightmare the World had ever seen to date.After only two years of war, Hitler’s Germany controlled all of France, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as much of North Africa, and his war machine strongly threatened Great Britain with continuous air raids. On the other side of Europe lay the giant, untapped Soviet Union, with it’s enormous deposits of oil and metals, as well as great agricultural plains, all of which Hitler considered vital for the good continuation of the war. Thus on the twenty second of June 1944 Germany and the Axis nations begin operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Although for the first year the Russians suffer heavy defeats at the hands of the Axis, in 1943 the Russians deal Germany it’s first major defeat of the war at the Battle of Stalingrad. After many months of bitter fighting the Germans succumbed to the Russian winters and retreated, followed by the Russian counterattack. With the help of Allied forces, pushing inward from the West, the Russians were able to successfully liberate Eastern Europe and reach Germany, by the beginning of 1945. On February fourth through the twelfth of 1945, the leaders of the three strongest allied nations met in Yalta, a Crimean town on the Black Sea, to discuss the last steps in completely annihilating the Axis and the fate of the World after the end of the War. The three players were Winston Churchill of Great Britain, Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, two of which, Roosevelt and Churchill, seeked nothing more than a “moral” world order, culminating with the Roseveltian United Nations, the third however seeking a new Soviet Empire. The Yalta Conference effectively gave birth to the following fifty years of conflict between the East and the West, as well as sold out Eastern Europe to the insatiable monster we now know as communism, due to the lack of foresight and strategy employed by Churchill and Roosevelt in negotiating with Stalin. Churchill and Roosevelt’s concerns at the beginning of the conference were mainly that the U.S.S.R. remain in the war up to the surrender of Japan, and that the U.S.S.R. obtain only a few amount of votes in the United Nations. For this reason, Roosevelt accepted that the soviets keep the Baltic republics, obtained in the 1939-1941 nonagression pact signed with Hitler, thus only giving Russia three votes total. One vote for the Russian republic itself, one for Ukraine, and one for Belorussia. Having procured the Baltic states without pushing any of his demands, Stalin realized that he was bringing much more political weight to the “poker” table than both Churchill and Roosevelt combined. War damages incurred to Russia, amounted to approximately twenty million dead Russians, greatly outweighing Roosevelt’s 450.000 dead and Churchill’s 372.000. With this in mind, he proposed that the Eastern European states, “liberated” by force by the Red Army on it’s way to Berlin, should remain under Russian protection, thus allowing the Russians to facilitate socio-economic programs and form interim governments, “helping” the formerly occupied nations “help” themselves.This form of ideology fit right in with Churchill and Stalin’s philosophy of not conquering the aggressor but rather “reforming” him or her and then slowly backing off allowing him to regain suzerainty over his own country. While posing with a smile, Stalin was incensed. He was still playing by the old rules of the war, where if you loose the war, you loose your land, especially if you were the aggressor. The victor on the other hand, took over your land and formulated his own set of rules and regulations.Stalin did not allow Roosevelt and Churchill to see through his fa ade and Section II, paragraph two, subsections (a), (b), (c), and especially (d) were quickly introduced in the Yalta Agreement.(see Appendix I) These three subsections were extremely important in what Stalin was trying to achieve, almost as important as the occupation of the territories themselves. Subsection (a) states that the occupational power has the right to “establish conditions of internal peace”, which allows Stalin to quickly dispose by force of any opposition he might encounter, while he is setting up his new policies in the occupied territories. Subsection (b) further allows the restructurement of society and the “temporary” setup of martial law for the purpose of “carrying out emergency relief measures for the relief of the distressed peoples”.(see Appendix 1) Subsection (c), arguably the most useful to “Uncle Joe” so far, provides for the formation of “interim governmental authorities”, meaning that now Stalin can legitimately orient any country he chooses toward his communist plague, just by forming Soviet friendly governments in all of the occupied territories under his auspice. At this point Subsection (d) of the agreement only legitimizes any puppet government Stalin places in any country, by allowing him to “facilitate [and supervise the] holding of such elections wherever necessary.”Having assured himself the Eastern block nations Stalin fixed his eyes on the postwar division of Germany. Germany was going to be divided in three parts, one part larger than the other two belonging to Russia, including Berlin, and the other section divided in two areas of responsibility, belonging to the United States and Great Britain. Seeing that Stalin was manipulating the situation somewhat, however not having basis for a verbal confrontation, since Stalin’s Russia was the most affected by the war, Roosevelt and Churchill introduced the idea that France, although occupied by Germany as early as 1940, should be given a part of Germany as well. In addition, the city of Berlin itself should be divided among the four occupational groups. Stalin agreed, however in exchange he asked that there might be introduced a reparation section, known as Section V within the Yalta agreement.Section V is divided in two parts, of which the second part is further subdivided into three subsections: (a), (b), and (c). The first part of Section V establishes that Germany must pay “in kind” for the war damages it has incurred against the allies, and since the Soviet Union is the most damaged, it will receive fifty percent of the twenty two billion dollar settlement, while every and any other nation involved in the war on the allied side, will have to divide the rest of the eleven billion left. Here not only did Stalin secure most of the spoils resulting from this war, but in the same time secured the manner in which these spoils were to be extracted. Firstly, the occupants were to remove from Germany the all industrial material, moneys, stocks, investments weather private or state owned, in addition Germany was to supply the allies yearly with an amount of goods from the current season, such as food and metal ores or any other commodity deemed valuable. Additionally, the allies had complete use of German labor at no cost. This last clause effectively gave Stalin a green light at enslaving the occupied territories of Germany, right which he fully used in relocating hundreds of thousands of peoples and their families into work camps known as Gulags, within Russian territories.Following the concessions he received from Churchill and Roosevelt in regard to Eastern Europe, Stalin continued his peaceful offensive with the Polish question. Even though since the liberation of Poland by the allies, the poles had formed a provisional government, Stalin asked that this government be “reformed” according to the Yalta agreement and then recognized by the allies, request which introduced Section VII of the Yalta agreement. In Section VII, the Soviets would facilitate the election of a new government in Poland, based on more “democratic” principles, after which Poland would be allowed to exchange ambassadors and be recognized by other nations. Section VII only represents yet another chapter of Stalin’s lies and broken promises to the rest of the allies and the World.According to Professor Richard M. Ebeling, the history and economics Chair at Hillside University, the “Yalta conference performed a service to the Soviets that was as important to Stalin as the occupied areas themselves. This was the invaluable service of giving moral legitimization to what Stalin had acquired through sheer force.” The Yalta conference gave a human eye to the half a century of Soviet Domination of Poland, Chehoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany, it allowed the formation of the Soviet Empire later renamed the “Evil Empire” by Ronald Regan, the president of the United States. Stalin, by his own account only two months after the conference, had no intention of keeping any promises he made at Yalta, much less of helping any of the countries under his domination. In April of 1945 he is quoted as saying at a party that ” this war is not as in the past. Whoever conquers a territory also imposes his own social system. The war is almost over, we shall recover in fifteen or twenty years and we’ll have another go at it.”Fifty years after the Yalta conference the world is still recovering from the communist plague the allied leaders let in the door that week in the beginning of February, 1945. Communism, form the day it was born until today, approximately eighty years later, has consumed the lives of almost sixty million people, shaped the map of the entire world and still to this day, due to the agreement at Yalta, rules over more than thirty five percent of the world’s population.INDEX 1YALTA (CRIMEA) CONFERENCEFebruary, 1945Washington, March 24 – The text of the agreements reached at theCrimea (Yalta) Conference between President Roosevelt, PrimeMinister Churchill and Generalissimo Stalin, as released by theState Department, follows:PROOL OF PROCEEDINGS OF CRIMEA CONFERENCEThe Crimea Conference of the heads of the Governments of theUnited States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics, which took place from Feb. 4 to 11,came to the following conclusions:I. WORLD ORGANIZATIONIt was decided:1. That a United Nations conference on the proposed world organization should be summoned for Wednesday, 25 April, 1945, and should be held in the United States of America. 2. The nations to be invited to this conference should be:(a) the United Nations as they existed on 8 Feb., 1945; and(b) Such of the Associated Nations as have declared war on the common enemy by 1 March, 1945. (For this purpose, by the term “Associated Nations” was meant the eight Associated Nations and Turkey.) When the conference on world organization is held, the delegates of the United Kingdom and The United States of America will support a proposal to admit to original membership two SovietSocialist Republics, i.e., the Ukraine and White Russia. 3. That the United States Government, on behalf of the three powers, should consult the Government of China and the French Provisional Government in regard to decisions taken at the present conference concerning the proposed world organization. 4. That the text of the invitation to be issued to all thenations which would take part in the United Nations conference should be as follows:”The Government of the United States of America, on behalf of itself and of the Governments of the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics and the Republic of China and of the Provisional Government of the French Republic invite the Government of ——– to send representatives to a conference to be held on 25 April, 1945, or soon thereafter , at San Francisco, in the United States of America, to prepare a charter for a general international organization for the maintenance ofinternational peace and security. “The above-named Governments suggest that the conferenceconsider as affording a basis for such a Charter the proposals for the establishment of a general international organization which were made public last October as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks conference and which have now been supplemented by the following provisions for Section C of Chapter VI:C. Voting”1. Each member of the Security Council should have one vote. “2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural mattersshould be made by an affirmative vote of seven members. “3. Decisions of the Security Council on all matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members, including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VIII, Section A and under the second sentence of Paragraph 1 of Chapter VIII, Section C, a party to a dispute should abstain from voting.’”Further information as to arrangements will be transmittedsubsequently. “In the event that the Government of ——– desires in advance of the conference to present views or comments concerning the proposals, the Government of the United States of America will be pleased to transmit such views and comments to the other participating Governments.”Territorial trusteeship:It was agreed that the five nations which will have permanent seats on the Security Council should consult each other prior to the United Nations conference on the question of territorial trusteeship. The acceptance of this recommendation is subject to its being made clear that territorial trusteeship will only apply to(a)existing mandates of the League of Nations;(b) territories detached from the enemy as a result of the present war;(c) any other territory which might voluntarily be placed under trusteeship; and

(d) no discussion of actual territories is contemplated at the forthcoming United Nations conference or in the preliminary consultations, and it will be a matter for subsequent agreement which territories within the above categories will be place under trusteeship. II. DECLARATION OF LIBERATED EUROPEThe following declaration has been approved:The Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, thePrime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America have consulted with each other in the common interests of the people of their countries and those of liberated Europe. They jointly declare their mutual agreement to concert during the temporary period of instability in liberated Europe the policies of their three Governments in assisting the peoples liberated from the domination of Nazi Germany and the peoples of the former Axis satellite states of Europe to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems. The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of ational economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter – the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live – the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations. To foster the conditions in which the liberated people mayexercise these rights, the three governments will jointly assist the people in any European liberated state or former Axis state in Europe where, in their judgment conditions require,(a)to establish conditions of internal peace;to carry out emergency relief measures for the relief of distressed peoples;(b)to form interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of Governments responsive to the will of the people;(c)to facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections. The three Governments will consult the other United Nations and provisional authorities or other Governments in Europe when matters of direct interest to them are under consideration. When, in the opinion of the three Governments, conditions in any European liberated state or former Axis satellite in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult together on the measure necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in this declaration. By this declaration we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our pledge in the Declaration by the United Nations and our determination to build in cooperation with other peace-loving nations world order, under law, dedicated to peace, security, freedom and general well-being of all mankind. In issuing this declaration, the three powers express the hope that the Provisional Government of the French Republic may be associated with them in the procedure suggested. III. DISMEMBERMENT OF GERMANYIt was agreed that Article 12 (a) of the Surrender terms for Germany should be amended to read as follows:”The United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall possess supreme authority with respect to Germany. In the exercise of such authority they will take such steps, including the complete dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security.”The study of the procedure of the dismemberment of Germany was referred to a committee consisting of Mr. Anthony Eden, Mr. John Winant, and Mr. Fedor T. Gusev. This body would consider the desirability of associating with it a French representative. IV. ZONE OF OCCUPATION FOR THE FRENCH AND CONTROL COUNCIL FOR GERMANY. It was agreed that a zone in Germany, to be occupied by theFrench forces, should be allocated France. This zone would be formed out of the British and American zones and its extent would be settled by the British and Americans in consultation with the French Provisional Government. It was also agreed that the French Provisional Government should be invited to become a member of the Allied Control Council for Germany. V. REPARATIONThe following protocol has been approved:ProtocolOn the Talks Between the Heads of Three Governments at theCrimean Conference on the Question of the German eparations in Kind. 1. Germany must pay in kind for the losses caused by her to the Allied nations in the course of the war. Reparations are to be received in the first instance by those countries borne the main burden of the war, have suffered the worst. 2. Reparation in kind is to be exacted from Germany in three following forms:(a)Removals within two years from the surrender of Germany or the cessation of organized resistance from the national wealth of Germany located on the territory of Germany herself as well as outside her territory (equipment, machine tools, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, shares of industrial, transport and other enterprises in Germany, etc.), these removals to be carried out chiefly for the purpose of destroying the war potential of Germany. (b) Annual deliveries of goods from current production for aperiod to be fixed. (c) Use of German labor. 3. For the working out on the above principles of a detailed plan for exaction of reparation from Germany an Allied thereof three representatives – one from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, one from the United Kingdom and one from the United States of America. 4. With regard to the fixing of the total sum of the reparation as well as the distribution of it among the countries which suffered from the German aggression, the Soviet and American delegations agreed as follows:”The Moscow rep. studies as a basis for discussion the suggestion of the Soviet Government that the total sum of the points (a) and (b) of the Paragraph 2 should be 22 billion dollars and that 50 per cent should go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”The British delegation was of the opinion that, pending consideration of the reparation question by the Moscow reparation commission, no figures of reparation should be mentioned. The above Soviet-American proposal has been passed to the Moscowreparation commission as one of the proposals to be consideredby the commission. VI. MAJOR WAR CRIMINALSThe conference agreed that the question of the major war criminals should be the subject of inquiry by the three Foreign Secretaries for report in due course after the close of the conference. VII. POLANDThe following declaration on Poland conference:”A new situation has been created in Poland as a result of her complete liberation by the Red Army. This calls for the establishment of a Polish Provisional Government which can be more broadly based than was possible before the recent liberation of the western part of Poland. The Provisional Government which is now functioning in Poland should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from Poles abroad. This new Government should then be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. “A commission to consult in the first instance in Moscow with members of the present Provisional Government and with other Polish democratic leaders from within Poland and from abroad, with a view to the reorganization of the present Government along the above lines. This Polish Provisional Government of National Unity shall be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot. In these elections all democratic and anti-Nazi parties shall have the right to takepart and to put forward candidates. “When a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity has been properly formed in conformity with the above, the Government of the U.S.S.R., which now maintains diplomatic relations with the present Provisional Government of Poland, and the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the United States of America will establish diplomatic relations with the new Polish Provisional Government National Unity, and will exchange Ambassadors by whose reports the respective Governments will be kept informed about the situation in Poland. “The three heads of Government consider frontier of Poland should follow the Curzon Line with digressions from it in some regions of five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland. They recognize that Poland must receive substantial accessions in territory in the north and west. They feel that the opinion of these accessions and that the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should thereafter await the peace conference.”VIII. YOGOSLAVIAIt was agreed to recommend to Marshal Tito and to Dr. IvanSubasitch(a) That the Tito-Subasitch agreement should immediately be put into effect and a new government formed on the basis of the agreement. (b) The declare:(I) That the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the (AVNOJ) will be extended to include members of the last Yugoslav Skupstina who have not compromised themselves by collaboration with the enemy, thus forming a body to be known as a temporary Parliament and(II) That legislative acts passed by the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation (AVNOJ) will be subject to subsequent ratification by a statement should be published in the communiqu of the conference. IX. Notes on these subjects were put in by the British delegation and the American and Soviet delegations agreed to consider them and give their views later. X. YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN, RE:There was an exchange of views between the Foreign Secretaries on the question of the desirability of alliance. The question at issue was whether a state still under an armistice regime could be allowed to enter into a treaty with another state. Mr. Eden suggested that the Bulgarian and Yugoslav Governments should be informed that this could not be approved. Mr. Stettinius suggested that the British and American fu proposal of Mr. Stettinius. XI. SOUTHEASTERNThe British delegation put in notes for the consider their colleagues on the following subjects:(a) The Control Commission in Bulgaria(b) Greek claims upon Bulgaria, more particularly with reference to reparations. (c) Oil equipment in Rumania. XII. IRANMr. Eden, Mr. Stettingson on the situation in Iran. It was agreed that this matter should be pursued through the diplomatic channel. XIII. MEETINGS OF THE THREEThe conference agreed that permanent machinery should be set up for consultation between the three Foreign Secretaries; they should meet as often as necessary, probably about every three or four month. These meetings will be held in rotation in the three capitals, the first meeting being held in London. XIV. THE MONTREAUX CONVENTION AND THE STRAITSIt was agreed that at the next meeting of the three Foreign Secretaries to be held in London, they should consider proposals which it was understood the Soviet Government would put forward in real Governments.The forgoing protocol was approved and signed.Foreign Secretaries:E. R. Stettinius Jr. M. MolotovAnthony EdenAGREEMThe leaders of the three great powers – the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain – have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter in an greement:1. The status quo in Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People’s Republic) shall be restored. 2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.:(adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union)(a) The commercial port of Darien shall be internationalized, the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union in this port being safeguarded, and the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the U.S.S.R. restored;(b) The Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South Manchurian Railroad, which provide an outlet operated by the establishment being understood that the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union shall be safeguarded and that China shall retain sovereignty in Manchuria;3. The Kurile Islands shall be:It is understood that the agreement concerning Outer Mongolia and the ports and railroads referred to above will require concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. The President will take measures in order to maintain this concurrence on advice from Marshal Stalin. The heads of the three great powers have agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union shall be unquestionably fulfilled after Japan has been defeated. For its part, the Soviet Union expresses it readiness to conclude with the National Government of China a pact of friendship and alliance between the two, to render assistance to China with its armed forces for the purpose of liberating China from the Japanese yoke. Signed:Joseph StalinFranklin d. RooseveltWinston S. ChurchillFebruary 11, 1945. INDEX 2

Clemens, Diane Shaver. Yalta. New York: Oxford UP,1970. This source offers excellent biographical information on the participants at the conference and their motives. Kuter, Laurence S. Airman at Yalta. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1955. This source has many maps and photographs, along with charts and explanations on the conference. Snell, John L. The Meaning of Yalta. Baton Rouge: Louisiana UP, 1956. This source contains an excellent graduate study of the conference at Yalta, with many explanations on the expansions of power and the ambitions of the Soviet Union. Sulzberger, C. L. Such a Peace. New York: Continuum, 1982. This source provides good insight on the agreements made by the allies as to the outcome of the war.Theohanis, Athan G. The Yalta Myths. Grandview: Columbia University of Missouri Press, 1970. This source offers excellent insight into the politics in the United States, surrounding the time of the Yalta conference and what president Roosevelt was trying to achieve at the conference.