November 1943: World War II teetered in the balance. The Nazis controlled nearly all of the European continent, thanks to a seemingly impregnable system of defense nicknamed "fortress Europe." Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets had already lost millions of lives. With the fate of the world in question, the "Big Three"—Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin—secretly met for the first time to chart a strategy for defeating Hitler. Over three days in Tehran, this trio—strange bedfellows united by their mutual responsibility as head of the Allied powers—made essential decisions that would direct the final years of the war and its aftermath. The three agreed to open a second front in the West, spearheaded by an invasion of France at Normandy the following June. They also discussed what might come after the war, including dividing Germany and establishing the United Nati