Abstract
NE OF THE RESULTS of the onset of the cold war has been a protest against the expansion of the Soviet Union and its failure in the postwar period to redeem wartime promises of self-determination. This protest was accompanied by condemnation of the Yalta negotiations as a political betrayal which made possible this breach of faith. Such thinking overlooks several previous acts in the drama. A study of military developments and Big Three policies in the period before Yalta leads to the conclusion that the fate of liberated countries in Europe, particularly those in the Balkans and eastern-central Europe, had been largely determined before the meetings in the Crimea. A brief review of the succession of conferences, negotiations, and declarations affecting liberated countries will reveal the attitudes of the Big Three during the stages of the war before Yalta. The first of these was the Atlantic Conference, at which President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met off the coast of Newfoundland and issued the Atlantic Charter on August 14, 1941. The United States had not yet entered the war but was deeply committed to the British cause and was preparing to extend lend-lease to the Soviet Union, which had been invaded by Hitler on June 22, 1941. In Points 2 and 3 of the eight-point declaration the principle of self-determination was stated in very broad terms:
Published Version
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