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The Basra Conference was a strategy meeting attended by Winston Churchill, Joe Steele, and Leon Trotsky in October 1943. It was held at the Shatt al-Arab Hotel in Basra, Iraq. It was the first of the World War II conferences of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom), and the first time Steele and Trotsky met in person.[1]

The public statement coming out of the conference declared independence for the captured countries of Europe and the Far East and punishment for the German and Japanese leaders causing the war. It also promised the creation of an international organization strong enough to make a lasting peace. Private agreements were also reached where the Soviet Army would help the U.S. invade Japan when it became feasible. Trotsky also had wanted hegemony over all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans but Churchill convinced him to yield influence over Greece to Britain by threatening Naval bombardment.[2]

References[]

  1. Joe Steele, pgs. 276-283, HC.
  2. Ibid., pgs. 282-283, HC.
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