Diplomatic history of World War II

The Diplomatic history of World War II includes the major foreign policies and interactions inside the opposing coalitions, the Allies and the Axis powers. The military history of the war is covered at World War II.

Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers, who called themselves "The United Nations." They were joined by numerous other countries, such as Canada, and other Commonwealth countries, as well as governments in exile, such as the Free France and the Netherlands.

The Cairo Conference held in Cairo, Egypt, outlined the Allied position against Japan during World War II and made decisions about postwar Asia. The meeting was attended by President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not attend the conference because his meeting with Chiang could have caused friction between the Soviet Union and Japan.

Britain, the USSR and the US, were in frequent contact through ambassadors, top generals, foreign ministers and special emissaries such as the American Harry Hopkins. There were numerous high-level conferences; in total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, and Stalin 5. Most visible were the three summit conferences that brought together the three top leaders.

The first meeting of the Big Three, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, came at the Tehran Conference in Iran from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It agreed on an invasion of France in 1944 (the "Second front") and dealt with Turkey, Iran, Yugoslavia and the war against Japan as well as the post-war settlement.

The Yalta Conference met in the Crimea (Russia) February 4–11, 1945. It focused on postwar plans for European boundaries. The Soviets already controlled Poland. The new boundaries of Poland were especially important, with Stalin seeking control of western Belorussia and western Ukraine. Poland was to gain parts of Germany. Stalin promised free elections in Poland under the auspices of a government he controlled. At Roosevelt's strong urging, Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany. It was agreed the USSR would be a member of the United Nations Security Council, with a veto, and Ukraine and Belorussia would be UN members, but not the other 12 Soviet republics. Germany was to be divided into three zones of occupation, and France was also to get a zone. In a decision that became highly controversial, all civilians would be repatriated.

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