The Dumbarton Oaks Conference or, more formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization, was an international conference at which proposals for the establishment of a "general international organization", which was to become the United Nations, were formulated and negotiated. The conference was led by the Big Four – the United States, the United Kingdom, the USSR and the Republic of China – with delegates from other nations participating in the consideration and formulation of these principles. It was held at the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C. from August 21, 1944 to October 7, 1944.