Great Meetings in 20th Century Politics
At Doodle we work to bring you a product that makes getting together effortless and fast. Collaboration is key to great outcomes: we believe every meeting has the potential to be a Great Meeting. In this series, we explore the meetings that shaped the 20th century.
Whether they were strategic one-on-ones, clandestine gatherings, diplomatic meet-and-greets, or enormous conferences, there’s no denying certain key meetings shaped the political landscape of the 20th century. Here are three that altered the course of history.
The Secret Meeting that Changed the Outcome of WWII
This meeting was held in secret on a ship docked in Newfoundland, and at least one of its participants walked away feeling it hadn’t gone to plan — how did it end up becoming one of the most influential meetings of World War II? In 1941, Winston Churchill met with Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard U.S.S. Augusta, moored in Placentia Bay. It was two years since war had been declared. The Allies were struggling; the Axis was looking stronger and stronger. Churchill wanted to persuade Roosevelt to join the Allied effort. But while Roosevelt was sympathetic, he refused to discuss the possibility of America declaring war on the Axis powers — he simply didn’t feel the American people had given him a mandate to do so. But while the two leaders didn’t reach an agreement on this issue, they did find consensus on some other key points. A few days after the meeting, they released a joint statement known as the Atlantic Charter. The charter argued against war as a tool for territorial expansion and set out its support for the restoration of self-government in for occupied nations.
The close of that year saw the bombing of Pearl Harbour: a direct attack on American soil. In the U.S, the tide of public opinion shifted. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, the U.S officially joined WWII — and, with core values and a code of conduct already in place, their military cooperation with the UK got off to a smooth start. According to the BBC, “the friendship forged at Placentia Bay formed a firm foundation for a series of crucial strategy conferences throughout the war.”
Even meetings that don’t go as planned can productively grow relationships.
The Malta Summit: The Meeting that Ended the Cold War
The first meeting between a U.S and Soviet head of state since the start of the Cold War was never going to be plain sailing and George H.W Bush’s 1989 meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev did get off to a choppy start — quite literally. Bush was due to meet Gorbachev on board the Soviet cruise ship ‘Maxim Gorky’ but high winds and rough seas left the US President stranded on his own vessel in Malta’s Marsaxlokk Bay, leading him to miss the first session of the two-day summit. The global political situation at the time was no less turbulent. Only a few weeks earlier, the Berlin Wall — the most concrete symbol of the Iron Curtain that divided Eastern and Western Europe — had crumbled. Communist governments across Europe, from Poland to East Germany, were collapsing, while Hungary had opened its border to the West. This volatile situation called for decisive diplomacy and both Bush and Gorbachev stepped up.
Few people expected the meeting to be anything more than symbolic, and, for the most part, it wasn’t. At its conclusion, Bush even gifted participants with pieces broken from the Berlin Wall. Nevertheless, over the course of the summit, Gorbachev outlined his policy of perestroika — restructuring the Soviet government and opening up to other nations — which met with Bush’s approval. Now, the Malta Summit is widely recognized as the meeting that ended the Cold War. As Gorbachev himself put it, “The Malta Summit in 1989 was so important, that if it had not taken place, the world out there would be unrecognizable to the one we live in today.”
Even symbolic gestures of goodwill can form the foundations of significant change.
The Meeting that Made Modern Europe
In 1992, twelve European nations — Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom — signed the Treaty of Maastricht, which formalized the European Union as well as outlining its key objectives and the criteria by which these should be achieved. Chief among these: introducing a single currency. In fact, this objective wasn’t even especially new. The European Union had existed in the form of the European Economic Council since the Treaty of Rome was signed by six nations in 1958. And the creation of a coherent economic and monetary system had been a key item on the EEC’s agenda ever since. The idea of a single currency was hotly debated in subsequent meetings but, thanks instability in the European political landscape in the 70s and early 80s, was deemed too risky to explore further. At last, in 1986, the EEC revived the idea. In Maastricht, the newly-minted European Union finally outlined a concrete path towards adopting the Euro, including establishing the European Central Bank.
That’s not all the meeting in Maastricht achieved: a unified Germany was welcomed into the union; common foreign and security policies were agreed; European citizenship was formalised. The creation of the new EU body stabilised political tensions in Europe. Since 1992, a further sixteen countries have strengthened the Union. And as for the Euro? Its adoption has eliminated fluctuation risks and exchange costs across Europe and strengthened the single market.
Don’t discard good strategy because of bad timing. Patience pays off!
These three meetings transformed modern politics for the better, through diplomacy, strategy, and collaboration. We hope you’ve enjoyed our series on the Great Meetings that shaped the 20th century. Schedule your next Great 21st Century Meeting with Doodle.
Jessica Miller is an Australian writer currently based in Berlin
