Big Four Conference

The representatives were Edward R. Stettinius, US Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Andrei Gromyko, American Ambassador to the US, Sir Alexander Cadogan, France Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (replaced by Lord Halifax for the second phase) and Ku Wei-chün, Chinese Ambassador to the US.

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.

The council met again in Moscow later in 1945 and agreed to prepare draft treaties with Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland.

[11] Other attendees were James F. Byrnes, US Secretary of State, and Maurice Couve de Murville as representative of France.

[13] The ministers finalized the texts of the peace treaties with Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland, for signature on 10 February 1947.

[16] On 16 August 1953 the Soviet Union proposed a Big Four conference to discuss a German peace treaty that would reunite the nation.

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.

[19] On 23 October 1954 the Soviet Union proposed another Big Four conference to discuss reunification of Germany and withdrawal of the occupying forces.

[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.

"[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.

[7] In July 1959 the foreign ministers met again in Geneva to try to resolve the escalating tensions over Berlin, but could not find a solution.

This led to the 7 September 1959 resolution by the UN to create a Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament with representatives from Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and the USSR.

[33] The Ten-Nation Committee convened on 15 March 1960, but was dissolved when the Warsaw Pact members withdrew following the U-2 spy plane incident and subsequent break-down of the planned Big Four heads of state summit scheduled to start in Paris on 16 May 1960.

[34] In 1969-1971 the United Nations representatives of the Big Four powers met regularly in New York to try to promote Middle Eastern peace.