page_title: History of the United Nations
section_title: Planning
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United Nations / Origins / Planning
caption_attribution_description: English: early United Nations official's passport from World War Two - working for UNRRA, issued in 1944 for the Middle East.
context_page_description: The history of the United Nations as an international organization has its origins in World War II. Since then its aims and activities have expanded to make it the archetypal international body in the early 21st century.
context_section_description: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered his most important legacy the creation of the United Nations, making a permanent organization  out of the wartime Alliance of the same name. He was the chief promoter of the United Nations idea. The first plans for the future international organization emerged in declarations signed at the wartime Allied conferences: the Moscow Conference and the Tehran Conference on 30 October 1943.
  Roosevelt had been a strong supporter of the League of Nations back in 1919–20, but was determined to avoid the mistakes Woodrow Wilson had made. The United Nations was FDR's highest postwar priority. He insisted on full coordination with the Republican leadership. He made sure that leading Republicans were on board, especially Senators Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, and Warren Austin of Vermont. In a broad sense, Roosevelt believed that the UN could solve the minor problems and provide the chief mechanism to resolve any major Issues that arose among the great powers, all of whom had a veto. For FDR creating the UN was the most important goal for the entire war effort. Roosevelt was especially interested in  international protection of human right, and in this area his wife played a major role as well.
  The Allies had agreed to the basic structure of the new body at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. At Yalta, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed to the establishment of the United Nations, as well as the structure of the United Nations Security Council.  Stalin insisted on having a veto and FDR finally agreed.  The participants at Yalta also agreed that the United Nations would convene for the first time in San Francisco in April 1945 in the United Nations Conference on International Organization.  Roosevelt considered the United Nations to be his most important legacy. He provided continuous backstage political support at home and with Churchill and Stalin abroad. The Big Four of the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and China would make the major decisions, with France added later to provide permanent members of the all-powerful Security Council. Each had a veto power, thus avoiding the fatal weakness of the League of Nations, which had theoretically been able to order its members to act in defiance of their own parliaments.
  Roosevelt went public with strong advocacy in the 1944 presidential campaign, and turned detailed planning over to the State Department, where Sumner Welles and Secretary Cordell Hull worked on the project. It was his ideas that "four policemen" would collaborate to keep and enforce the peace.  The United States, Britain, Soviet Union and China made the major decisions and became permanent members of the all-powerful Security Council; France was added to make five policemen.  Stalin insisted on a veto power. Roosevelt finally agreed, thus avoiding the fatal weakness of the League of Nations, which theoretically could order its members to act in defiance of their own parliaments.
  From 21 September to 7 October 1944, representatives of the Republic of China, Britain, the US and the USSR  met to elaborate plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. Those and later talks produced proposals outlining the purposes of the United Nations organization, its membership and organs, as well as arrangements to maintain international peace and security and international economic and social cooperation. Governments and private citizens worldwide discussed and debated these proposals. Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
  At the Yalta Conference it was agreed that membership would be open to nations that had joined the Allies by 1 March 1945. Brazil, Syria and a number of other countries qualified for membership by declarations of war on either Germany or Japan in the first three months of 1945 – in some cases retroactively.
caption: Early United Nations official's passport from World War Two - working for UNRRA, issued in 1944 for the Middle East
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