The Potsdam Conference
Summary
Truman informs Stalin of the 'bomb'
Reflection
- The last of the Allied conferences took place from 17 July to 2 August 1945 in Potsdam, near Berlin.
- The political climate had changed significantly in the intervening period: Germany had surrendered on 8 May 1945 and the war in Europe had come to an end. Japan stubbornly resisted US bomb attacks but the United States had a final trump card: on 16 July, the USA successfully tested an atomic bomb in the desert in New Mexico.
- At the Potsdam Conference, Harry Truman replaced Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died on 12 April 1945, and Clement Attlee took over as head of the British delegation after Winston Churchill’s defeat in the general elections of 26 July. Only Joseph Stalin was personally present at all the Allied conferences.
- The atmosphere was much more tense than at Yalta. A few weeks before the surrender of the Reich, the Red Army had quickly occupied the eastern part of Germany, part of Austria and all of Central Europe. Stalin, aware of this territorial advantage, took the opportunity to install Communist governments in the countries liberated by the Soviets. With the Western powers protesting at their lack of control over the elections held in the countries occupied by the Red Army, Stalin completely redrew the map of Eastern Europe. (Ignoring the Yalta Declaration on Liberated Europe).
- The three Heads of State did nonetheless agree on the practical arrangements for Germany’s complete disarmament, the abolition of the Nazi Party, the trial of war criminals and reparations could only be taken from each occupation zone.
- One of the most controversial matters addressed at the Potsdam Conference dealt with the revision of the German-Soviet-Polish borders - In exchange for the territory it lost to the Soviet Union following the readjustment of the Soviet-Polish border, Poland received a large swath of German territory and began to deport the German residents of the territories in question.
- Furthermore, the United States, Great Britain, and China released the “Potsdam Declaration,” which threatened Japan with “prompt and utter destruction” if it did not immediately surrender (the Soviet Union did not sign the declaration because it had yet to declare war on Japan).
Truman informs Stalin of the 'bomb'
- The Potsdam Conference is perhaps best known for President Truman’s July 24, 1945 conversation with Stalin, during which time the President informed the Soviet leader that the United States had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Historians have often interpreted Truman’s somewhat firm stance during negotiations to the U.S. negotiating team’s belief that U.S. nuclear capability would enhance its bargaining power. Stalin, however, was already well-informed about the U.S. nuclear program thanks to the Soviet intelligence network; so he also held firm in his positions. This situation made negotiations challenging. The leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, who, despite their differences, had remained allies throughout the war, never met again collectively to discuss cooperation in postwar reconstruction.
Reflection
- At Potsdam, the three Great Powers were divided by their increasingly contradictory viewpoints. The overriding aim was no longer to unite to defeat Nazism, but rather to prepare for the post-war era and to divide up the ‘spoils’. Just a few months after the Yalta communiqué that had promised so much, deep divisions were already beginning to form between the West and the Soviets.
