Chapter 23 Summary

Roosevelt managed to give his Inaugural Speech January 20, 1945. He attended the festivities, although he nearly collapsed from exhaustion by noon. Two days later, he was on his way to Yalta, a Soviet port in the Black Sea, where he would meet with Churchill and Stalin. He invited Anna, not Eleanor.

Each of the "big three"leaders had an agenda. Roosevelt wanted to set up the United Nations with equal votes for all, even the smaller nations. He also wanted Russia to help against Japan. Churchill wanted to maintain the British Empire, with France as an ally, so that Europe would not be dominated by the Soviet Union. Stalin was primarily interested in borders, particularly those of Poland, reparations from Germany, and getting land in the Far East.

There was a lot of disagreement over Poland. Stalin argued that Napoleon and Hitler had invaded...