Extended Writing Essay: The Conferences
Make reference to the image below:
Prime Minister Churchill, President Truman and Marshal Stalin at the Potsdam Conference,
July 1945 (© IWM BU 9195)
a) In 1945 at the Yalta Conference in Crimea the three global superpowers (the
USSR,USA and UK and their given leaders met face to face; they all had significantly
different intentions from the conference. Their primary stated objective was to ensure
the defeat of Nazi Germany and thus the end of World War II. In addition they wanted to
remove any reference to Naziism from the political, economic and social culture of the
region.The three Superpowers also agreed to discuss what would happen to Germany
once the war was over as well as find a way to prevent another world war from
repeating again. Each of the 3 Superpowers had their different agendas which provided
for a complex meeting. For Stalin, his main objective was to weaken Germany in order
to spread the communist ideology to the rest of Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill had
more aligned agendas, primarily they wanted to weaken Germany so they could exert
economic influence over the region. Stalin, whose country had been impacted the most
by the war, wanted to ensure a long term solution to avoid a repeat of the war and
intended to do this by building a buffer zone of similarly aligned states along the border
of the USSR. In addition to this Stalin wanted Germany to pay reparations to the USSR.
The USA under Roosevelt wanted to develop the United Nations (a global group of
nations), anticipating that it could be used as a tool to deal with future conflicts. It was
critical for Roosevelt that he obtain support of the Soviet Union to defeat the Japanese
which he at this point did not have. When asked to join the UN, Stalin insisted that all of
the 16 Soviet Socialist Republics under the Soviet Union were granted individual UN
memberships. Stalin wanted to build up the USSR by creating a sphere of communist
influence in Eastern and Central Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill both wanted
Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe (specifically Poland) to have a new democratic
Make reference to the image below:
Prime Minister Churchill, President Truman and Marshal Stalin at the Potsdam Conference,
July 1945 (© IWM BU 9195)
a) In 1945 at the Yalta Conference in Crimea the three global superpowers (the
USSR,USA and UK and their given leaders met face to face; they all had significantly
different intentions from the conference. Their primary stated objective was to ensure
the defeat of Nazi Germany and thus the end of World War II. In addition they wanted to
remove any reference to Naziism from the political, economic and social culture of the
region.The three Superpowers also agreed to discuss what would happen to Germany
once the war was over as well as find a way to prevent another world war from
repeating again. Each of the 3 Superpowers had their different agendas which provided
for a complex meeting. For Stalin, his main objective was to weaken Germany in order
to spread the communist ideology to the rest of Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill had
more aligned agendas, primarily they wanted to weaken Germany so they could exert
economic influence over the region. Stalin, whose country had been impacted the most
by the war, wanted to ensure a long term solution to avoid a repeat of the war and
intended to do this by building a buffer zone of similarly aligned states along the border
of the USSR. In addition to this Stalin wanted Germany to pay reparations to the USSR.
The USA under Roosevelt wanted to develop the United Nations (a global group of
nations), anticipating that it could be used as a tool to deal with future conflicts. It was
critical for Roosevelt that he obtain support of the Soviet Union to defeat the Japanese
which he at this point did not have. When asked to join the UN, Stalin insisted that all of
the 16 Soviet Socialist Republics under the Soviet Union were granted individual UN
memberships. Stalin wanted to build up the USSR by creating a sphere of communist
influence in Eastern and Central Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill both wanted
Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe (specifically Poland) to have a new democratic
