Potsdam Conference

The Potsdam Conference (German: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Cecilienhof,

the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to
2 August 1945. (In some older documents it is also referred to as the Berlin
.[2][3])
Conference of the Three Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and UK
The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States,
represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers
Winston Churchill[4] and, later, Clement Attlee,[5] and President Harry S. Truman.

Stalin, Churchill, and Trumanas well as Attlee, who participated alongside A conference session including
Churchill while awaiting the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin,
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov,
replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the Labour Party's defeat of the
Joseph Stalin, William D. Leahy,
Conservativesgathered to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany,
Joseph E. Davies, James F. Byrnes,
which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on 8 May (V-E and Harry S. Truman.
Day). The goals of the conference also included the establishment of post-war order,
peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.

Contents
1 Relationships amongst the leaders
2 Agreements made between the leaders at Potsdam
2.1 Potsdam Agreements
Joseph Stalin and Harry Truman
2.1.1 Germany
meeting at the Potsdam Conference
2.1.2 Poland
on 18 July 1945. From left to right,
2.2 Potsdam Declaration
first row: Premier Joseph Stalin;
3 Aftermath President Harry S. Truman, Soviet
4 Previous major conferences Ambassador to the United States
Andrei Gromyko, Secretary of State
5 See also
James F. Byrnes, and Soviet Foreign
6 Notes Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Second
7 References row: Brigadier General Harry H.
Vaughan, Truman's confidant and
8 Further reading
8.1 Primary sources military aide; Russian interpreter
Charles Bohlen, Truman naval aide
9 External links James K. Vardaman, Jr., and
(partially obscured) Charles Griffith
Ross.[1]
Relationships amongst the leaders
In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would greatly affect the relationships
between the leaders.

Firstly, the Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe. By July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist takeover, refugees were fleeing from these
countries. Stalin had set up a puppet communist government in Poland. He insisted that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive
[6]
measure against possible future attacks and claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence.
Secondly, Britain had a new Prime Minister. Before VE Day, Conservative Party
leader Winston Churchill had served as Prime Minister in a coalition government;
his Soviet policy since the early 1940s had differed considerably from former US
President Roosevelt's, with Churchill believing Stalin to be a "devil"-like tyrant
leading a vile system.[7] A general election was held in the UK on 5 July, the results
of which became known during the conference: with a Labour Party majority,
Labour leader Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister.

Thirdly, President Roosevelt had died on 12 April 1945, and Vice President Harry
Truman assumed the presidency; his succession saw VE Day (Victory in Europe)
Sitting (from left): Clement Attlee,
within a month and VJ Day (Victory in Japan) on the horizon. During the war and in Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin, and
the name of Allied unity, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential behind: Fleet Admiral William Daniel
domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe. He explained that "I just have Leahy, Foreign Secretary Ernest
a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man" and reasoned, "I think that if I give him Bevin, Secretary of State James F.
Byrnes, and Foreign Minister
everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, 'noblesse oblige',
Vyacheslav Molotov.
he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and
peace."[8]

While inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the Allied
progress of the war. George Lenczowski notes that "despite the contrast between his
relatively modest background and the international glamour of his aristocratic
predecessor, [Truman] had the courage and resolution to reverse the policy that
appeared to him naive and dangerous", which was "in contrast to the immediate,
often ad hoc moves and solutions dictated by the demands of the war".[9] With the
end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with a new challenge, the
nature of the relationship between the two emerging superpowers.[9] The two Cecilienhof, site of the Potsdam
Conference, in 2014.
leading powers continued to sustain a cordial relationship to the public but
suspicions and distrust lingered between them.[10] As the suspicion grew between
the two rising powers, Stalin proposed that America will use their economical advantage and success in order to entice other nations
into expanding their U.S. policies.[11]

Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, and he became increasingly suspicious of
Soviet intentions under Stalin.[9] Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which
was incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February. In addition, it was at the Potsdam
Conference that Truman became aware of possible complications elsewhere, when Stalin objected to Churchill's proposal for an early
Allied withdrawal from Iran, ahead of the schedule agreed at the Tehran Conference. However, the Potsdam Conference marks the
first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person.[12][13]

Agreements made between the leaders at Potsdam

Potsdam Agreements
At the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions. All other issues were to be answered
by the final peace conference to be called as soon as possible.

Germany

The Allies issued a statement of aims of their occupation of Germany:demilitarization, denazification,

democratization, decentralization, dismantling and decartelization.
Germany and Austria were each to be divided into four occupation zones (earlier agreed in principle Yalta),
at and
similarly each capital, Berlin and Vienna, was to be divided into four zones.
 It was agreed that Nazi war criminals would be put on trial.
All German annexations in Europe were to be reversed,
including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the
westernmost parts of Poland.
Germany's eastern border was to be shifted westwards to
the OderNeisse line, effectively reducing Germany in
size by approximately 25% compared to its 1937 borders.
The territories east of the new border comprisedEast
Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of
Pomerania. These areas were mainly agricultural, with the
exception of Upper Silesia which was the second largest
centre of German heavy industry.
"Orderly and humane" expulsions of the German
populations remaining beyond the new eastern borders of
Germany were to be carried out; from Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but not Yugoslavia.[14] Demographics map used for the border
War reparations to the Soviet Union from their zone of discussions at the conference
occupation in Germany were agreed. It was also agreed
that 10% of the industrial capacity of the western zones
unnecessary for the German peace economy should be
transferred to the Soviet Union within 2 years. Stalin
proposed and it was accepted that Poland was to be
excluded from division of German compensation, to be
later granted 15% of compensation given to Soviet Union.
It was to be ensured that German standards of living did
not exceed the European average. The types and
amounts of industry to dismantle to achieve this was to be
determined later (see Allied plans for German industry
after World War II).
German industrial war-potential was to be destroyed,
through the destruction or control of all industry with
military potential. To this end, all civilian shipyards and
aircraft factories were to be dismantled or otherwise
destroyed. All production capacity associated with war The OderNeisse line (click to enlarge)
potential, such as metals, chemical, machinery etc., were
to be reduced to a minimum level which was later
determined by the Allied Control Commission. Manufacturing capacity thus made "surplus" was to be dismantled as
reparations or otherwise destroyed. All research andinternational trade was to be controlled. The economy was to
be decentralized (decartelization). The economy was also to be reorganized with primary emphasis on agriculture
and peaceful domestic industries. In early 1946 agreement was reached on the details of the latter: Germany was to
be converted into an agricultural andlight industry economy. German exports were to be coal, beer, toys, textiles,
etc. to take the place of theheavy industrial products which formed most of Germany's pre-war exports. [15]

Poland

A Provisional Government of National Unityrecognized by all three

powers should be created (known as the Lublin Poles). When the Big
Three recognized the Soviet controlled government, it meant, in ef fect,
the end of recognition for the existingPolish government-in-exile(known
as the London Poles).
Poles who were serving in the British Army should be free to return to
Poland, with no security upon their return to the communist country
guaranteed.
The provisional western border should be theOderNeisse line, defined
by the Oder and Neisse rivers. Silesia, Pomerania, the southern part of
East Prussia and the formerFree City of Danzig should be under Polish
administration. However the finaldelimitation of the western frontier of
Poland should await the peace settlement (which would take place 45
years later at the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect ot Poland's old and new borders, 1945.
Germany in 1990) Territory previously part of Germany
The Soviet Union declared it would settle the reparation claims of is identified in pink
Poland from its own share of the overall reparation payments.
Potsdam Declaration
In addition to the Potsdam Agreement, on 26 July, Churchill, Truman, and Chiang
Kai-shek, Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China (the Soviet Union was
not at war with Japan) issued the Potsdam Declaration which outlined the terms of
surrender for Japan during World War II in Asia.

Aftermath
Truman had mentioned an unspecified "powerful new weapon" to Stalin during the
conference. Towards the end of the conference, Japan was given an ultimatum to
surrender (in the name of the United States, Great Britain and China) or meet At the beginning: Winston Churchill,
"prompt and utter destruction", which did not mention the new bomb. Prime minister Harry S. Truman, and Joseph Stalin
Kantar Suzuki did not respond[16] (mokusatsu, which was interpreted as a
declaration that the Empire of Japan should ignore the ultimatum). Therefore, the
United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on
August 9, 1945. The justification was that both cities were legitimate military
targets, to end the war swiftly, and preserve American lives. However, to some the
timing has suggested that Truman did not want Stalin involved in the terms of
Japan's surrender. It is important to note that Truman delayed the Potsdam
Conference in order to be sure of the functionality of this "powerful new weapon".
Notably, when Truman informed Stalin of the atomic bomb, he did not explicitly
mention its atomic nature, just vaguely saying that the United States "had a new
weapon of unusual destructive force";[17] Stalin, though, had full knowledge of the
atomic bomb's development due to Soviet spy networks inside the Manhattan
Project, and told Truman at the conference to "make good use of this new addition to
the Allied arsenal".[18]

The Soviet Union converted the other countries of eastern Europe into satellite states
within the Eastern Bloc, such as the People's Republic of Poland, the People's
Republic of Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Hungary,[19] the Czechoslovak
The Foreign Ministers:Vyacheslav
Republic,[20] the People's Republic of Romania,[21] and the People's Republic of
Molotov, James F. Byrnes, and
Albania.[22] The Soviets later formed the puppet state of East Germany (officially Anthony Eden, July 1945
[23]
the German Democratic Republic) from the Soviet zone of German occupation.

Previous major conferences

Yalta Conference, 4 to 11 February 1945
Second Quebec Conference, 12 to 16 September 1944
Tehran Conference, 28 November to 1 December 1943
Cairo Conference, 22 to 26 November 1943
Casablanca Conference, 14 to 24 January 1943

See also
Diplomatic history of World War II
List of Soviet UnionUnited States summits

Notes
1. Description of photograph(http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=392), Truman Library.
 2. "Avalon Project - A Decade of American Foreign Policy 1941-1949 - Potsdam Conference"(http://avalon.law.yale.ed
u/20th_century/decade17.asp). Avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
3. Russia (USSR) / Poland Treaty (with annexed maps) concerning the Demarcation of the Existing Soviet-Polish State
Frontier in the Sector Adjoining the Baltic Sea 5 March 1957(https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREA
TIES/PDFFILES/TREATIES/RUS-POL1957SF.PDF) (retrieved from the UN Delimitation Treaties Infobase, accessed
on 18 March 2002)
4. "Potsdam-Conference"(http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061076/Potsdam-Conference)Encyclopdia
Britannica
5. "BBC Fact File: Potsdam Conference"(http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1144829.sh
tml?sectionId=7&articleId=1144829). Bbc.co.uk. 2 August 1945. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
6. Leffler, Melvyn P., "For the South of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union and the Cold W
ar, First Edition,
(New York, 2007) pg 31
7. Miscamble 2007, p. 51
8. Miscamble 2007, p. 52
9. George Lenczowski, American Presidents and the Middle East,(1990), pp7-13
10. Hunt, Michael (2013). The World Transformed. Oxford University Press. p. 35.ISBN 9780199371020.
11. Hunt, Michael (2013). The World Transformed:1945 to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 35.
12. Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, Vol. 1: Year of Decisions (1955), p.380, cited in Lenczowski,American Presidents, p.10
13. Nash, Gary B. "The Troublesome Polish Question." The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society
. New
York: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print.
14. Alfred de Zayas Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge, London 1977. See also conference on "Potsdamer Konferenz 60
Jahre danach" hosted by the Institut fr Zeitgeschichte in Berlin on 19. August 2005
PDF (http://www.ifz-muenchen.d
e/fileadmin/images/Das_IfZ/jb2005.pdf)Seite 37 et seq.
15. James Stewart Martin.All Honorable Men (1950) p. 191.
16. "Mokusatsu: One Word, Two Lessons" (http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/tech_journals/mokusatsu.pdf)(PDF).
Retrieved 20 March 2013.
17. Putz, Catherine (18 May 2016)."What If the United States Had Told the Soviet Union About the Bomb?"(http://thedi
plomat.com/2016/05/what-if-the-united-states-had-told-the-soviet-union-about-the-bomb/)
. The Diplomat. Retrieved
8 July 2016.
18. Nichols, Tom (12 April 2016). "Simply No Other Choice: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Japan" (http://n
ationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/simply-no-other-choice-why-america-dropped-the-atomic-bomb-15756)
. National
Interest.org. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
19. Granville, Johanna, The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956
, Texas
A&M University Press, 2004.ISBN 1-58544-298-4
20. Grenville 2005, pp. 37071
21. The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
22. Cook 2001, p. 17
23. Wettig 2008, pp. 96100

References
Cook, Bernard A. (2001),Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-8153-4057-5
Crampton, R. J. (1997),Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and after , Routledge, ISBN 0-415-16422-2
Miscamble, Wilson D. (2007),From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War, Cambridge
University Press, ISBN 0-521-86244-2
Roberts, Geoffrey (2002), Stalin, the Pact with Nazi Germany, and the Origins of Postwar Soviet Diplomatic
Historiography, 4 (4)
Wettig, Gerhard (2008), Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield,ISBN 0-7425-5542-9

Further reading
 Michael Beschloss. The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 (Simon
& Schuster, 2002) ISBN 0684810271
Farquharson, J. E. "Anglo-American Policy on German Reparations from altaY to Potsdam." English Historical
Review 1997 112(448): 904926.in JSTOR
Feis, Herbert. Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference (Princeton University Press, 1960)OCLC 259319
Pulitzer Prize; online
Gimbel, John. "On the Implementation of the Potsdam Agreement: an Essay on U.S. Postwar German Policy ."
Political Science Quarterly1972 87(2): 242269.in JSTOR
Gormly, James L. From Potsdam to the Cold War: Big Three Diplomacy, 19451947. (Scholarly Resources, 1990)
Mee, Charles L., Jr. Meeting at Potsdam. M. Evans & Company, 1975. ISBN 0871311674
Naimark, Norman. Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe (Harvard University Press, 2001)
ISBN 0674003136
Neiberg, Michael. Potsdam: the End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe (Basic Books, 2015)
ISBN 9780465075256
Thackrah, J. R. "Aspects of American and British Policy owards
T Poland from the Yalta to the Potsdam Conferences,
1945." Polish Review 1976 21(4): 334. in JSTOR
Zayas, Alfred M. de. Nemesis at Potsdam: The Anglo-Americans and the Expulsion of the Germans, Background,
Execution, Consequences.Routledge, 1977. ISBN 0710004583

Primary sources
Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers. The Conference of Berlin (Potsdam Conference, 1945)
2
vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960

External links
Agreements of the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference
Truman and the Potsdam Conference
Annotated bibliography for the Potsdam Conference from the Alsos Digital Library
The Potsdam Conference, July August 1945 on navy .mil
United States Department of State Foreign relations of the United States : diplomatic papers : the Conference of
Berlin (the Potsdam Conference)1945 Volume I Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Of fice, 1945
United States Department of State Foreign relations of the United States : diplomatic papers : the Conference of
Berlin (the Potsdam Conference)1945 Volume II Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Of fice, 1945
European Advisory Commission, Austria, GermanyForeign relations of the United States : diplomatic papers, 1945.
Harry Truman Revisionist Analysis of Potsdam Conference Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Cornerstone of Steel, Time magazine, 21 January 1946
Cost of Defeat, Time magazine, 8 April 1946
Pas de Pagaille! Time magazine, 28 July 1947
Interview with James W. Riddleberger Chief, Division of Central European Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State, 194447
"The Myth of Potsdam,"in B. Heuser et al., eds., Myths in History (Providence, Rhode Island and Oxford: Berghahn,
1998)
"The United States, France, and the Question of German Power , 19451960," in Stephen Schuker, ed., Deutschland
und Frankreich vom Konflikt zur Ausshnung: Die Gestaltung der westeuropischen Sicherheit 19141963, Schriften
des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien 46 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000).
U.S. Economic Policy Towards defeated countries April 1946.
Lebensraum
EDSITEment's lesson Sources of Discord, 1945-1945
Template:Harry Truman

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Potsdam_Conference&oldid=811730030

"

This page was last edited on 23 November 2017, at 15:25.

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.