This Day in Diplomatic History (WWII’s “Big 3” Meet at Teheran)

November 28, 1943--For the first time in World War II, the leaders of the “Grand Alliance” against the Axis powers met to map war strategy at the Teheran Conference.

At the time, the confab involving Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin was regarded as a success. Yet already, tensions had arisen among the “Big Three” that would play out in the closing days of the conflict and affect the course of the ensuing Cold War.

Iran was not what one would regard normally as a natural meeting place for the three nations. The only reason why it was chosen was to placate Stalin, who at that time had the northern part of the nation under his control and refused to budge lest he be far removed from any position where he could coordinate battlefield movements.

The Soviet presence in Iran profoundly perturbed Iran, which looked to the U.S. as an “honest broker” between the two colonial powers, Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. In late 1943, the Iranian government seemed on the brink of an upheaval, ready to “dissolve into chaos at any moment,” according to Cordell Hull’s warning to FDR.

One outcome of the conference was the Big Three’s promise to preserve Iran’s unity and independence. “In later years,” wrote Barry Rubin in Paved With Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran (1980), “Iranian governments would often refer to that document as the basis for an American obligation to protect their country and to furnish large-scale aid.”

Gen. Patrick Hurley, FDR’s envoy to the Middle East, was not exactly possessed of much knowledge of the region, continually confusing Iraq and Iran. But he at least quickly figured out that America’s two Allies had designs on dismembering the nation, and he wouldn’t accede to that.

Michael Beschloss’ The Conquerors revealed that Heinrich Himmler had even asked German magicians and mystics about the venue of the meeting. To avoid the assassination threat, FDR rode from the airport in a plain Army staff car; meanwhile, a double—complete with the familiar the familiar cape, fedora and cigarette holder—stared out the window.

The difficulties of traveling caught up that night with FDR, whose sudden outbreak of sweat and green face led Secret Service agents to fear he’d been poisoned. In fact, the conference marked a kind of turning point for his health—following influenza he was believed to have picked up there, he never really recovered his old stamina.

One night during the conference, Churchill’s physician, Lord Moran, found his patient in one of his character “black dog” moods, voicing concern that a war with the Soviets might even surpass the current one in savagery: “I want to sleep for billions of years….Stupendous issues are unfolding before our eyes, and we are only specks of dust that have settled in the night on the map of the world.”

As the conference drew to a close, one of the most problematic aspects of the conference appeared on the agenda: what to do with Germany. FDR brought up one of his previously bruited ideas—dividing the Third Reich—except that, instead of splitting it in three, as he previously wanted, he now advocated carving it up in five parts. Stalin wanted it cup up even further. FDR agreed with Stalin, noting that Germany was “less dangerous to civilization when it was 107 provinces.”