TEHRAN CONFERENCE

(Nov. 28Dec. 1, 1943), meeting between the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, the British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. The chief discussion centred on the second front in wartime Europe. Stalin agreed to an eastern offensive to coincide with the forthcoming invasions of German-occupied France. Though military questions were dominant, the Tehran Conference saw more discussion of political issues than had occurred in any previous meeting between Allied governmental heads. Not only did Stalin repeat his desire that the Soviet Union should retain the frontiers provided by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and by the Russo-Finnish Treaty of 1940, but he also stated that it would want in addition the Baltic coast of East Prussia. Though the settlement for Germany was discussed at length, all three Allied leaders appeared uncertain; their views were imprecise on the topic of a postwar international organization; and on the Polish question the Western Allies and the Soviet Union found themselves in sharp dissension, when Stalin expressed his continued distaste for the London Polish government. On Iran, which Allied forces were partly occupying, they were able to agree on a declaration (published on Dec. 1, 1943) guaranteeing the postwar independence and territorial integrity of that state and promising postwar economic assistance.