The use of the term was revived during
World War II at the
Casablanca conference when American President
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) sprang it on the other
Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of
Germany,
Italy, and
Japan.
[10] And, when President Roosevelt suddenly announced this surrender condition at Casablanca, he did so referencing U.S. Grant and the fact that the famous general's initials, since the Civil War, had also come to stand for "Unconditional Surrender".
The term was also used at the end of World War II when Japan surrendered to the Allies.
Winston Churchill and
Joseph Stalin disapproved of the demand for unconditional surrender, as did most senior U.S. officials.[
citation needed] It has been estimated that it helped prolong the war in Europe through its usefulness to
German domestic propaganda that used it to encourage further resistance against the Allied armies, and its suppressive effect on the
German resistance movement since even after a coup against
Adolf Hitler:
"those Germans — and particularly those German generals — who might have been ready to throw Hitler over, and were able to do so, were discouraged from making the attempt by their inability to extract from the Allies any sort of assurance that such action would improve the
treatment meted out to their country."
[11]
It has also been argued that without the demand for unconditional surrender
Central Europe might not have fallen behind the
Iron Curtain.
[11] "It was a policy that the Soviet Union accepted with alacrity, probably because a completely destroyed Germany would facilitate Russia's postwar expansion program."
[12]