Editing Franklin D. Roosevelt (section)

====Wartime conferences====
{{see also|Diplomatic history of World War II}}

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| caption1  = Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill at the [[Cairo Conference]]
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| caption2  = Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the [[Yalta Conference]], February 1945, two months before Roosevelt's death
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Roosevelt coined the term "[[Four Policemen]]" to refer to the "Big Four" Allied powers of World War II: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The "[[Grand Alliance (World War II)|Big Three]]" of Roosevelt, [[Winston Churchill]], and Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]], together with Chinese Generalissimo [[Chiang Kai-shek]], cooperated informally on a plan in which American and British troops concentrated in the West; Soviet troops fought on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern front]]; and Chinese, British and American troops fought in Asia and the Pacific. The United States also continued to send aid via the Lend-Lease program to the Soviet Union and other countries. The Allies formulated strategy in a series of high-profile conferences as well as by contact through diplomatic and military channels.{{sfn|Doenecke|Stoler|2005|pp=109–10}} Beginning in May 1942, the Soviets urged an Anglo-American invasion of German-occupied France to divert troops from the Eastern front.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=557–59}} Concerned that their forces were not yet ready, Churchill and Roosevelt decided to delay such an invasion until at least 1943 and instead focus on a landing in North Africa, known as [[Operation Torch]].{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=560–61}}

In November 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to discuss strategy and post-war plans at the [[Tehran Conference]], where Roosevelt met Stalin for the first time.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=587–88}} Britain and the United States committed to opening a second front against Germany in 1944, while Stalin committed to entering the war against Japan at an unspecified date. Subsequent conferences at [[Bretton Woods Conference|Bretton Woods]] and [[Dumbarton Oaks Conference|Dumbarton Oaks]] established the framework for the post-war [[International monetary systems|international monetary system]] and the [[United Nations]], an intergovernmental organization similar to the failed League of Nations.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg|2015|pp=214–16}} Taking up the [[Wilsonian]] mantle, Roosevelt pushed the establishment of the United Nations as his highest postwar priority. Roosevelt expected it would be controlled by Washington, Moscow, London and Beijing, and would resolve all major world problems.<ref>Townsend Hoopes, and Douglas Brinkley, ''FDR and the Creation of the UN'' (Yale UP, 1997) pp. ix, 175.</ref>

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| image2            = Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Farouk of Egypt at Great Bitter Lake in Egypt - NARA - 196056.jpg
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| footer            = Ethiopian Emperor [[Haile Selassie I]] (left) and [[King Farouk of Egypt]] (right) on board USS Quincy (CA-71) in Great Bitter Lake, after the Yalta Conference, February 1945
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Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met for a second time at the February 1945 [[Yalta Conference]] in Crimea. With the end of the war in Europe approaching, Roosevelt's primary focus was convincing Stalin to enter the war against Japan; the Joint Chiefs had estimated that an [[Operation Downfall|American invasion of Japan]] would cause as many as one million American casualties. In return, the Soviet Union was promised control of Asian territories such as [[Sakhalin Island]]. The three leaders agreed to hold a conference in 1945 to establish the United Nations, and they also agreed on the structure of the [[United Nations Security Council]], which would be charged with ensuring [[international security]]. Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in countries that had been occupied by Germany. Germany itself would not be dismembered but would be jointly occupied by the United States, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=623–24}} Against Soviet pressure, Roosevelt and Churchill refused to consent to impose huge reparations and deindustrialization on Germany after the war.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg|2015|pp=233–34}}

During March 1945, Roosevelt sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over Poland, Germany, prisoners of war, and other issues. When Stalin accused the Western Allies of plotting behind his back a separate peace with Hitler, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates."{{Sfn|Burns|1970|p=587}}

Roosevelt's role in the [[Yalta Conference]] has been controversial; critics charge that he naively trusted the Soviet Union to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, while supporters argue that there was little more that Roosevelt could have done for the Eastern European countries given the Soviet occupation and the need for cooperation with the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Herring|2008|pp=584–87}}<ref name="ebumiller1">{{cite news|last1=Bumiller|first1=Elizabeth|title=60 Years Later, Debating Yalta All Over Again|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/politics/60-years-later-debating-yalta-all-over-again.html|access-date=October 14, 2017|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 16, 2005}}</ref>