Much has been written, at any rate in the West, about the "Argonaut” Conference, during which Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and their chief political and military colleagues met at Yalta in the Crimea. In 1955, the State Department published a wide collection of diplomatic documents relating to the Big Three’s meeting, the discussions they had together, and the resolutions and agreements they signed. Thus we can compare these authentic records with the statements of those taking part in the conference.
During the period between Churchill’s Moscow journey and the Yalta conference, a number of occurrences which influenced the course of negotiations should be mentioned.
On November 7, 1944, the American people re-elected Roosevelt to a fourth term as President, admittedly by about 3,000,000 fewer votes than in 1940. Obviously, in making his choice, the American voter was relying on the adage that one should not change horses in mid-course. Nevertheless, the victor of this exhausting campaign had neglected his brief and, in addition, he was in a very poor state of health.
"The President looked old and thin and drawn; he had a cape or shawl over his shoulders and appeared shrunken; he sat looking straight ahead with his mouth open, as if he were not taking things in.” This was Moran’s description of him on February 3, and the next day he wrote:
"It was not only his physical deterioration that had caught their attention. He intervened very little in the discussions, sitting with his mouth open. If he has sometimes been short of facts about the subject under discussion his shrewdness has covered this up. Now, they say, the shrewdness has gone, and there is nothing left.” Again, Moran noted on the 7th:
"To a doctor’s eye, the President appears a very sick man. He has all the symptoms of hardening of the arteries of the brain in an advanced stage, so that 1 give him only a few months to live."
For personal reasons Roosevelt, before starting on his electoral campaign, had dropped his previous Vice-President, Henry A. Wallace, in favour of Harry S. Truman, the senator from Missouri. This was a stroke of luck for Americans. Truman, a man of strong character, was, however, quite unprepared for his task when on April 12, 1945 he was suddenly
A Molotov signs the Franco-Russian pact, watched by dc Gaulle and Stalin. But by the time of the Yalta Conference relations were not so amicable.
Called upon to take over the responsibilities of power.
Moreover the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, had now reached retirement age. Roosevelt appointed Edward R. Stet-tinius in his place. Stettinius was a conscientious civil servant who knew his job thoroughly, but he was called upon to take over his duties under a President in very poor health, to say the least, and was faced by an opposite number as redoubtable and experienced in international affairs as Molotov.
World History
