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In Creating a Peace for One War, Did Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Inadvertently Lay the Groundwork for the Next?

With the war against Germany drawing to an end in February 1945, the stage was set for the creation of the agreement that would define post-World War II Europe. On February 4 of that year, three of the most powerful leaders in the world, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, met at the seaside Crimean resort town of Yalta to craft a peace-time settlement that would forever alter the European landscape. But in the years following World War II, a central question regarding the Yalta Conference has emerged: "In their desire for peace did Churchill and Roosevelt concede too much to the Soviet Union? In ending one war, did they inadvertently lay the groundwork for the next?"