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Founding the United Nations

How the UN was created during World War II and the compromises that shaped its structure.

Wartime Planning

The United Nations was conceived during World War II, not after it. The term 'United Nations' was coined by US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 to describe the Allied powers fighting the Axis. Planning for a postwar international organization began at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. (August-October 1944), where the US, UK, Soviet Union, and China drafted the basic structure.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin settled the most contentious issue: the veto power. The Soviet Union insisted that permanent members must be able to block any substantive Security Council resolution. Without this guarantee, Stalin made clear, the USSR would not join. The Western powers accepted the veto as the price of Soviet participation — a lesson learned from the League's failure without the US.

Founding the United Nations | Model Diplomat