Dumbarton << duhm BAHR tuhn >> Oaks was the name of an international conference held in August-October 1944 at Dumbarton Oaks, an estate in Washington, D.C. The name was also given to the proposals agreed upon at the conference. Thirty-nine delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union met to discuss plans for the creation of an international organization to be called the United Nations. After six weeks of talks, the Soviet delegates, as agreed in advance, left, and delegates from Nationalist China replaced them.
The conference gave more attention to establishing ways to deal with “the maintenance of international peace and security” than it did to setting up agencies to handle economic and social problems. The delegates agreed that provision must be made for the peaceful settlement of international disputes and for the power to enforce decisions. Their main achievement was the planning of a Security Council as the chief agency for settling conflicts and enforcing UN resolutions dealing with matters of war and peace among member states. Most provisions of the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals were put into the UN charter.
See also San Francisco Conference; United Nations (The Dumbarton Oaks Conference).
