Aftermath of the War

The Allied leaders of their countries were preoccupied with how to end the war; they were also motivated by the visions of postwar Europe. The first one was the conference at Tehran. The leaders of the Grand Alliance met at Tehran decided the future course of the war. Their major tactical decision concerned the final assault on Germany. Churchill had wanted British and American forces to follow up their North African and Italian campaigns by an indirect attack on Germany. The Allied leaders agreed to a partition of postwar Germany, and the differences over questions like the frontiers of Poland were set aside. When the conference at Yalta came around, the German defeat was basically the conclusion of the war. Stalin was suspicious of the Western powers. He was eager to obtain economically important resources and strategic military positions. The conference of Yalta gave the opportunity to Roosevelt to ask the Soviets for help against the Japanese. Also the newly created United Nations was a concern or in other words a major concern for the US. The Grand Alliance leaders agreed that Germany had to surrender unconditionally and created four occupation zones in Germany. They also decided to set reparations for Germany like World War I, but at twenty billion dollars.