THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW AS AMERICA, this week, went into the third year of its participation in World War II, the eyes of all humanity were turned to the Near East. There, in two separate and momentous...
...Territorial expansion in the Orient on the part of the three powers was renounced, but the declarations remained significantly silent concerning the present imperialistic holdings and the future status of those now held by Japan...
...Berlin was hit again...
...The Cairo declarations pledged the participating governments of China, Great Britain, and America to continue the war against Japan until unconditional surrender has been procured and to strip the Japanese of all the territory acquired in the past 50 years...
...The Red Army continued to push its relentless offensive against savage German resistance"' and fierce counter-attacks...
...In the Pacific the fight was also being carried to the enemy...
...They stressed the unity of the conferees and their determination to stand together until the Axis partners are crushed...
...We will welcome them as they may choose to come into a world family of democratic nations...
...The Teheran Declaration Here are the principal provisions of the Teheran declaration, signed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin: "We expressed our determination that our nations shall work together in the war and in the peace that will follow...
...The first conference at Cairo concerned itself primarily with the war in the Pacific...
...Out of diplomatic necessity—since Russia is not at war with Japan—the conferences were held separately, each dealing with a different phase of the war...
...Allied air armadas sweeping out from Britain continued to rip and sear German cities...
...Allied Pressure Continues Even as the conferees sat around the table the pressure against the Axis mentioned in the communiques was mounting...
...American bombers hammered Bremen and thundered over the gutted Ruhr Valley...
...Intensive air activity was reported to have inflicted heavy losses on Japanese shipping and to be softening up the Marshall Islands for an anticipated Allied invasion...
...Leipzig suffered its heaviest raid of the war...
...For example, the Teheran statement conspicuously failed to mention unconditional surrender...
...Our attacks will be relentless and increasing...
...We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of operations which will be undertaken from the east, west, and south...
...However, many who had hoped that the conference would direct an appeal to the German people to abandon their Nazi leaders and make peace were disappointed...
...The historic meeting, in which the Chinese leader did not participate, followed the Cairo conference by only a few days...
...The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours...
...Attending a major Allied war council for the first time, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese people, sat down at the conference table with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill...
...We shall seek the cooperation and active participation of all nations, large and small, whose peoples in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance...
...From these friendly conferences we look with confidence to the day when all the peoples of the world may live free lives untouched by tyranny and according to their varying desires and their own consciences...
...As to the war, our military staffs have joined in our roundtable discussions and we have concerted our plans for the destruction of the German forces...
...In Italy the American Fifth Army threw its full weight into the offensive launched last week by the British Eighth...
...Communiques Differ In Tone At the conclusion of both meetings official communiques were issued which covered, in broad terms, the results of the discussions...
...Probably because of Stalin's presence, the Teheran communique, dealing with Germany, was far more mild than the Cairo communique's declaration of intentions toward Japan...
...We came here with hope and determination...
...Here, too, the Germans were resisting furiously and were aided by weather conditions which drastically curtailed use of Allied airpower...
...And as to the peace, we are sure that our concord will make it an enduring peace...
...The second conference at Teheran, which drew the pattern for future blows against Germany, brought together for the first time Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill...
...No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German armies, by land, their U-boats by sea and their war plants from the air...
...We leave here friends in fact, in spirit and in purpose...
...We recognize fully the supreme responsibility resting upon us and all the United Nations to make a peace which will command the good will of the overwhelming masses of the peoples of the world and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations...
...With our diplomatic advisers we have surveyed the problems of the future...
...There, in two separate and momentous conferences, one held at Cairo, Egypt, and the other in Teheran, Iran, the leaders of the United Nations met to shape the course of the war against the common foe and to chart a path of peace for the world to follow...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 50
