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| | The worst fight was at the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans launched a vicious counteroffensives against the Allies (which now included the Americans. | | The worst fight was at the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans launched a vicious counteroffensives against the Allies (which now included the Americans. |
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| − | Casablanca Conference "Jan. 14–24, 1943, WW II mtg of U.S. & Britain, agree to fight until other side unconditionally surrenders" | + | From 1943 through 1945, the Allies held a series of conferences for the purposes of strategy and planning for the end of the war: |
| − | Teheran Conference 1943: Stalin promised to help us against Japan after the defeat of Germany. We agreed to D-Day invasion | + | |
| − | Yalta Conference Feb 1945: divide Germany into 4 military zones (denazification); Stalin lied re: free elections; plan for United Nations | + | *Casablanca Conference, Jan. 14–24, 1943, was a meeting between the U.S. and Britain during which they agreed to fight until other side unconditionally surrenders |
| − | Potsdam Conference July/Aug 1945: Truman replaced Roosevelt and little accomplished; demanded Japan's uncondit. surrender | + | *Teheran Conference, 1943, during which Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union promised to help us against Japan after the defeat of Germany, and the U.S. agreed to the D-Day invasion |
| | + | *Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945, during which the Allies divided Germany into 4 military zones (denazification) and Stalin lied in agreeing to hold free elections in Eastern Europe. The Allies also planned to start the United Nations |
| | + | *Potsdam Conference, July through Aug. 1945, during which Truman (after Roosevelt died) met with the other Allied leaders. Truman played cards (as was his habit) most of the time and little was accomplished. The Allies did agree to demand Japan's unconditional surrender |
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| | Some, including a friend of Albert Einstein who persuaded him to write a letter, feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and so the United States government initiated the Manhattan Project that develop our own atomic bomb at a secret facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Top physicists participated in the project. As soon as the bomb was tested and ready, President Truman ordered it to be dropped on Japanese cities in 1945. Japan then surrendered and our war with it was over. (Our war with Germany had already ended.) | | Some, including a friend of Albert Einstein who persuaded him to write a letter, feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and so the United States government initiated the Manhattan Project that develop our own atomic bomb at a secret facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Top physicists participated in the project. As soon as the bomb was tested and ready, President Truman ordered it to be dropped on Japanese cities in 1945. Japan then surrendered and our war with it was over. (Our war with Germany had already ended.) |