ABSTRACT
The leaders of the ‘Big Three’ anti-Nazi powers – the Soviet Union, United States and Britain – met at Teheran in November 1943 to concert future policy and to decide what to do with their enemies after their victory. It was their first joint meeting. Over dinner the leaders proposed toast after toast and the evening became increasingly festive. Stalin enjoyed himself by teasing Churchill, a habit which the Prime Minister claimed to have enjoyed until the conversation turned to the ‘liquidation’ of the German General Staff. The Soviet leader insisted that the German military system depended on 50,000 staff officers and technicians. If they were destroyed, the whole ‘German problem’ would be solved.1
