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As the second world war progressed, there was no common policy on how to deal with Germany and the rest of Europe after the anticipated defeat of Hitler. Communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries, but it was important for direct negotiations to occur. Stalin was unwilling to risk journeys by air, while Roosevelt was physically disabled and found travel grueling. Churchill was an avid traveler and had met with Roosevelt on two previous occasions in the United States and had also held two prior meetings with Stalin in Moscow. Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also an offer to meet in Baghdad and in Basra. He finally agreed to meet in Tehran in November 1943.
The conference was scheduled to convene at 4:00 p.m. on November 28, 1943. Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles to attend and whose health had already started deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met. Churchill arrived last.
The main objective of the United States and Great Britain was to ensure full cooperation and assistance from the Soviet Union for their conduct of the war. Stalin agreed, but in return, he sought their agreement to move the border between Poland and the Soviet Union west. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin then agreed on other matters, including the cross-channel invasion of occupied France by the Western Allies (Operation Overlord) and general war policy. Operation Overlord was scheduled to begin in May 1944, in conjunction with a Soviet attack on Germany's eastern border.
Roosevelt pledged that the British and the Americans would open a second front in France in the spring of 1944. Churchill had been seeking a joint attack through the Mediterranean that would have secured British interests in the Middle East and British India. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed that the nations in league with the Axis powers would be divided into territories to be controlled by the Soviet Union, the US, and the UK.
Roosevelt and Churchill months before had agreed that the Soviets had a strong case regarding Poland's boundaries and they decided to support Stalin's demands for an area in the eastern part of Poland largely inhabited by Ukrainians and White Russians who objected to Polish rule. Poland in return would be compensated with a slice of Germany.
Stalin proposed executing 50,000–100,000 German staff officers so that Germany could not plan another war. Churchill was outraged and denounced "the cold blooded execution of soldiers who fought for their country." He stormed out of the room but was brought back in by Stalin who said he was joking. Churchill was please that Stalin had relented, but did not doubt that Stalin would have carried out such a plan if he could have.
The invasion of France on June 6, 1944 took place about as planned, and the supporting invasion of southern France also took place. The Soviets launched a major offensive against the Germans June 22, 1944.
Roosevelt had first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, and the term was first officially used to describe a proposed post-war peace organization on January 1, 1942, before the Teheran Conference, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter. On April 25, 1945, less than two weeks after Roosevelt's death on April 12th, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations. It resulted in the drafting of the United Nations Charter. The UN officially came into existence on October 24, 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council: France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.