Big Four Conference

It was agreed at the Potsdam Conference (17 July – 2 August 1945) immediately after World War II to establish the Council of Foreign Ministers of the United States, Great Britain and the USSR to make peace treaties with the countries that had opposed Germany. This group first met in London in 1945, where disputes over the US occupation of Japan prevented much being achieved. The council met again in Moscow later in 1945 and agreed to prepare draft treaties with Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland.[7]

France was admitted to the council in 1946.[7] A Big Four Conference of foreign ministers in June–July 1946 involved much haggling between the Soviet and Western ministers.[8] However, the attendees managed to agree on final treaties with Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland.[7]

Another conference of the foreign ministers was held in the Waldorf Astoria New York from 4 November to 12 December 1946.[9] Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Vice Foreign Minister Andrey Vyshinsky traveled to New York on the RMS Queen Elizabeth liner from Southampton, England.[10] Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin of the United Kingdom traveled to New York with his wife on the RMS Aquitania.[11] Other attendees were James F. Byrnes, US Secretary of State, and Maurice Couve de Murville as representative of France. Pathé News was given exclusive rights to provide newsreel coverage, and furnished duplicates to other newsreel companies.[12]

The conference was held in the private apartment of Waldorf chairman Lucius Boomer on the 37th story of the hotel.[12] During the conference President Harry S. Truman was asked if there were plans for a conference of the big four heads of state but evaded the question.[13] The ministers finalized the texts of the peace treaties with Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland, for signature on 10 February 1947.[9] The difficulties about the Free Territory of Trieste were also resolved.[7]

In March 1947 the Big Four foreign ministers met in Moscow. They were British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, United States Secretary of State George Marshall, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, and French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault.[14] The meeting started on 10 March 1947. On 24 April 1947 it was reported that the meeting had ended, and the next meeting would be held in London.[15] The foreign ministers had agreed to formally dissolve the state of Prussia but had failed to agree on peace treaties with Germany and Austria.[7] In his closing speech Molotov replied to Marshall's accusation that Russia had caused the conference to fail.[15] The foreign ministers again failed to agree on peace treaties with Germany and Austria at a meeting in London in November–December 1947.[7]

A meeting was held in Paris in September 1948 over the status of the former Italian colonies, where no agreement was reached. The foreign ministers met once more in Paris in May–June 1949 and agreed to lift the Soviet blockage of Berlin. They could not agree on the reunification of Germany.[7]

Cold War tension relaxed after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the end of the Korean War in 1953.[16] On 16 August 1953 the Soviet Union proposed a Big Four conference to discuss a German peace treaty that would reunite the nation.[17] The French agreed, and in December 1953 Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain, threw his weight behind a conference of the foreign ministers of the Big Four that would discuss how to progress with peace talks, or at least find a way to stabilize the present situation. President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the US was in favor of such a conference, at least as a gesture of good will, while his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was opposed.[18]

The Berlin Conference (25 January – 18 February 1954) was a meeting in Berlin of the Big Four foreign ministers: John Foster Dulles (US), Anthony Eden (UK), Georges Bidault (France), and Vyacheslav Molotov (Soviet Union). The ministers agreed to call a wider international conference to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the ongoing Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh but failed to reach agreement on issues of European security and the international status of Germany and Austria, then under four-power occupation following World War II. Little progress was made, except with Austria, from which the Soviets agreed to withdraw if it were made neutral.[19] Molotov proposed a 50-year security pact for Europe as an alternative to NATO. The Western ministers rejected this proposal out of hand.[20]

Eden managed to obtain agreement at the Berlin conference to hold a five-power conference, which would include China, to discuss Korea and Indochina.[21] Since the US refused to give China diplomatic recognition, this was changed into a Big Four conference on the Far East with China and the Viet Minh participating as parties affected by the conflicts.[22] The subsequent Geneva Conference (26 April – 20 July 1954) achieved a temporary peace in French Indochina and France's withdrawal from Vietnam, but formal peace in Korea remained elusive.[19] On 23 October 1954 the Soviet Union proposed another Big Four conference to discuss reunification of Germany and withdrawal of the occupying forces.[23]

Former Minister of Defense Nikolai Bulganin succeeded Georgy Malenkov as Premier of Russia on 8 February 1955. On 10 May 1955 the US, Britain and France proposed a Big Four conference of heads of state. Russia accepted on 14 May 1955. On 15 May 1955 the Big Four nations signed an Austrian peace treaty.[24] The treaty was signed at a meeting of the Big Four foreign ministers in Vienna.[7]

Eisenhower with Harold Stassen, main author of the "Open Skies" proposal, 22 March 1955

The Geneva Summit (1955) was held in Geneva, Switzerland between 18 and 23 July 1955, the first such meeting of heads of states since the Potsdam Conference.[16] Attendees included President Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France.[25] The Russians took a conciliatory stance at this conference.[26] The discussions covered subjects such as arms negotiations, trade barriers, diplomacy and nuclear warfare. They reflected the common goal of increased global security.[27] Eisenhower floated an "Open Skies" proposal, suggesting a reciprocal arrangement where the US and USSR could each fly planes over the other's territory to observe military installations.[28] On the last day the heads of state agreed on a follow-up conference in October to discuss German reunification, European security, disarmament and east–west relations.[29]

On 25 July 1955 President Eisenhower made a radio and television address to the American people on the Geneva Conference. He was guardedly optimistic about the results.[30] James Reston of The New York Times was less positive. He said "...the President ... has shunned specifics like the plague and his only interventions in the debate today [20 July] were general exhortations for everybody to get together." The next day he wrote "The Big Four conference is declining fast. What was advertised for weeks as a realistic private discussion of conflicting national interests, and started this week as a determined demonstration of international chumminess, developed today into a propaganda battle between the United States and the Soviet Union."[31]

A follow-up Big Four Conference was held in Geneva in October 1955 attended by the foreign ministers of the four powers: John Foster Dulles (US), Harold Macmillan (UK), Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR), and Antoine Pinay (France). The purpose was to resolve issues such as the recent "guns for cotton" agreement between Czechoslovakia and Egypt, and the demands by Israel for arms from the Western powers. Dulles accused the USSR of wantonly flouting the spirit of Geneva. The ministers also discussed German reunification but made no progress.[32] They were also unable to agree on disarmament.[7]