Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944)

We explain what Dumbarton Oaks conference was and what was its importance for the birth of the UN. In addition, its main protagonists.

What was the Dumbarton Oaks conference?

The Dumbarton Oaks conference was a meeting between representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union (USSR) and China in which The first project for the creation of a world organization for international peace and security, which would subsequently give origin to the United Nations Organization (UN).

The conference was held at the Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Georgetown, Washington DC, between August 21 and October 7, 1944. Its result was The writing of the “proposals for the creation of an international general organization”that They established the objectives, structure and functioning of the future organization.

The points that were left without defining at the Dumbarton Oaks conference were discussed at the Yalta Conference of February 1945. Finally, at the San Francisco conference, which the representatives of fifty countries attended, The United Nations Charter was approvedsigned on June 26, 1945. The letter entered into force on October 24, 1945. At that time the UN was born.

• See also: UN origin

The historical context

In the context of World War II (1939-1945), the governments of allied countries celebrated meetings and conferences in which They talked about the development of war and the postwar order. One of the talled points was the need to create an international organization to ensure the peace and safety of the member statess in the future.

One of the first initiatives was the signature of the Atlantic Charter by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill, which took place on August 14, 1941.

On January 1, 1942, the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China (who headed the side of the allies) They signed the United Nations Declarationwhich initially adhered to another twenty -two countries and, subsequently, several more countries. It was the first document in which the term “United Nations” was used.

In 1943, two meetings reinforced the idea of ​​creating an international organization: the Moscow Conference, in which the Foreign Ministers of the four Allied powers met, and the Tehran Conference, in which the United Kingdom leaders (Churchill), the United States (Roosevelt) and the Soviet Union (Iosif Stalin) were found in person. The next step was Dumbarton Oaks conference In 1944.

• See also: Chronology of World War II

The proposals of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference

Dumbarton Oaks is a mansion in Georgetown, Washington DC, where Representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom gathered In two sessions, between August 21 and October 7, 1944, to formulate proposals for a world organization (which was finally the United Nations Organization).

The Dumbarton Oaks conference was the first important step to meet one of the sections of the 1943 Moscow Conference Declaration, in which the need to create an organization after the war that replaced the Nations Society was recognized.

The proposals approved in Dumbarton Oakscalled “proposals for the creation of an general general organization”, they set the objectives, structure and operation of the future organizationwhich would be composed of a general assembly, a Security Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.

However, these proposals did not constitute a definitive project of what the UN would be, because an agreement was not reached in important aspects as the voting system in the Security Council and the possibility that the republics that formed the Soviet Union were recognized as full members of the organization. These issues were solved at the Yalta Conference February 1945.

In short, the Dumbarton Oaks conference was an important step in the negotiations that culminated in the San Francisco conference and gave rise to the United Nations in 1945.

• See more at: Yalta Conference (1945)

Protagonists of the Dumbarton Oaks conference

Cordell Hull (1871-1955)

Cordell Hull was the United States Secretary of State between 1933 and 1944. Therefore, He was in charge of American foreign policy During the long administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt (President of the United States between 1933 and 1945). He was a member of the Democratic Party and began his political career as a member of the House of Representatives in 1907.

In the decade of the thirty He held the so -called “good neighborhood policy” with Latin America by adopting a non -intervention policy in internal affairs of Latin American nations. In this way, I sought to improve relations with the region. On the other hand, He faced Japanese expansionism in China in defense of US interests in the Pacific.

When World War II broke out, Hull supported Roosevelt's decision to help allies in the fight against Adolf Hitler's Germany and to maintain a firm position against Japanese ambitions in Asia and the Pacific.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hull defended at the Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Moscow in 1943 Creation a world organization that will guarantee peace and security. In 1944 He delivered the inaugural speech at the Dumbarton Oaks conference.

Managed to convince the need for this international organization to the other powers and Roosevelt called him the “Father of the United Nations”. In 1945 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. After the last re -election of Roosevelt in 1944 he resigned from his position and retired from political life.

Edward Stettinius (1900-1949)

Edward Stettinius was an American industrialist who He held the position of Secretary of State during the final phase of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1944-1945) and was an important figure in the establishment of the United Nations.

In 1943 he was appointed Undersecretary of State and in 1944 He presided over the Dumbarton Oaks conference. In December 1944 he replaced Cordell Hull as Secretary of State.

Although he limited himself to applying Roosevelt's foreign policy decisions and did not have a great role in the formulation of said policy, he went down in history as the man who He advised Roosevelt during the Yalta Conference of 1945 and directed by the US delegation at the San Francisco conference that wrote the United Nations Charter.

Two months after Roosevelt's death, the new President Harry S. Truman appointed James Byrnes as the new Secretary of State replacing Stettinius.

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References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Cordell Hull. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr .. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Kennedy, PM (2007). The Parliament of Humanity: History of the United Nations. Debate.
• United Nations (SF). United Nations History. Official United Nations Site. https://www.un.org/