The Big Three
Overview
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet in Tehran on November 28, 1943, for the start of a four-day conference during World War II. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Iran and would be the first meeting between the "Big Three" Allied leaders.
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News of the conference was not released until three days after its completion. On Dec. 4, The Times reported, "Moscow radio had not indicated the nature of political and military discussions that took place in the Iranian capital, but it was generally assumed they dealt with the coordination of military plans for the final assault on Nazi Germany and with the unification of political plans for making peace with Germany on the basis of 'unconditional surrender.'"
The talks focused on the opening of a second front in Western Europe, to take pressure off the Soviet army. It had been fighting the invading Nazi forces on the Eastern Front since 1941. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed in Tehran to open the front in the spring of 1944. That promise was kept with the D-Day invasion of Western Europe on June 6, 1944. The "Big Three" would meet once more, at Yalta in February 1945.