POTSDAM CONFERENCE

The Potsdam Conference was the last of the wartime summits among the Big Three allied leaders. It met from July 17 through August 2, 1945, in Potsdam, a historic suburb of Berlin. Representing the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain respectively were Harry Truman, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill (who was replaced midway by Clement Atlee as a result of elections that brought Labor to power). Germany had surrendered in May; the war with Japan continued. The purpose of the Potsdam meeting was the implementation of the agreements reached at Yalta. The atmosphere at Potsdam was often acrimonious, presaging the imminent Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In the months leading up to Potsdam, Stalin took an increasingly hard line on issues regarding Soviet control in Eastern Europe, provoking the new American president and the British prime minister to harden their own stance toward the Soviet leader.

Two issues were particularly contentious: Poland's western boundaries with Germany and German reparations. When Soviet forces liberated Polish territory, Stalin, without consulting his allies, transferred to Polish administration all of the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse (western branch) Rivers. While Britain and the United States were prepared to compensate Poland for its territorial losses in the east, they were unwilling to agree to such a substantial land transfer made unilaterally. They would have preferred the Oder-Neisse (eastern branch) River boundary. The larger territory gave Poland the historic city of Breslau and the rich industrial area of Silesia. Reluctantly, the British and Americans accepted Stalin's fait accompli, but with the proviso that the final boundary demarcation would be determined by a German peace treaty.

Reparations was another unresolved problem. The Soviet Union demanded a sum viewed by the Western powers as economically impossible. Abandoning the effort to agree on a specific sum, the conferees agreed to take reparations from each power's zone of occupation. Stalin sought, with only limited success, additional German resources from the British and American zones. Agreements reached at Potsdam provided for:

Transference of authority in Germany to the military commanders in their respective zones of occupation and to a four-power Allied Control Council for matters affecting Germany as a whole.

Creation of a Council of Foreign Ministers to prepare peace treaties for Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania and ultimately Germany.

Denazification, demilitarization, democratization, and decentralization of Germany.

Transference of Koenigsberg and adjacent area to the Soviet Union.

Just prior to the conference, Truman was informed of the successful test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico. On July 24 he gave a brief account of the weapon to Stalin. Stalin reaffirmed his commitment to declare war on Japan in mid-August. While the conference was in session, the leaders of Britain, China, and the United States issued a proclamation offering Japan the choice between immediate unconditional surrender or destruction.

Though the facade of allied unity was affirmed in the final communiqué, the Potsdam Conference marked the end of Europe's wartime alliance.

See also: teheran conference; world war ii; yalta conference

bibliography

Feis, Herbert. (1960). Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gormly, James L. (1990). From Potsdam to the Cold War: Big Three Diplomacy, 1945–1947. Wilmington, DE: SR Books.

McNeil, William H. (1953). America, Britain and Russia: Their Cooperation and Conflict, 1941–1946. London: Oxford University Press.

Wheeler-Bennett, John W., and Nicholls, Anthony. (1972). The Semblance of Peace: The Political Settlement after the Second World War. London: Macmillan.

Joseph L. Nogee

Potsdam Conference. The World War II Allies met in Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany, from 17 July to 2 August, 1945, following their victory in Europe. Representatives at the conference included President Harry S. Truman, in office only since April; Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and British prime ministers Winston Churchill and his successor Clement Attlee.

The conference's closing agreement confirmed an earlier plan to divide the administration of Germany and of Berlin into four zones of military occupation by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union; established a four‐power Allied Control Council to resolve overall issues of occupation policy; and suggested a territorial settlement that would place German‐held lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers under Polish jurisdiction. Austria was also divided into zones. In addition, the Allies agreed to permit each occupying power to seize reparations from their zone and promised the Soviet Union greater compensation owing to the extraordinary war damage it had suffered. The conference established a process to draft peace treaties, to plan for demilitarizing and eliminating Nazi influence from Germany, and to try Axis officials as war criminals.

The United States, Britain, and China also issued on 26 July the Potsdam Declaration, calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan. Some historians believe that the nature of Japanese militarism and Allied public opinion demanded this ultimatum. Others argue that, by making it harder for Japanese moderates to press for a negotiated end to the war, the policy led inexorably to the use of the atomic bomb.

During the conference, receiving word of the Manhattan Project's successful test at Alamogordo, Truman with studied casualness told Stalin that the United States now had a weapon of vast destructive force. Stalin (who already knew of the atomic‐bomb project through espionage) calmly replied that he hoped it would be used against Japan. Recent research reveals that Stalin then urgently accelerated his program to develop a Soviet bomb, fearing that his ally's new weapon would threaten Soviet security. Historians still debate the extent to which America's unilateral possession of this fearsome bomb hastened the cooling of relations between Truman and Stalin. Certainly, the growing hostility between these two leaders and their countries, aggravated by America's atomic monopoly and Stalin's determination to force Soviet‐led communism on Eastern European countries, did not bode well for harmonious execution of the Potsdam agreements. The United States subsequently refused to support additional reparations for the Soviet Union. Acrimony developed within the Allied Control Council over zonal governance and the nature of future German reunification. Although considered successful at the time, the Potsdam Conference would come to be seen by many historians as marking the emergence of the Cold War.
See also Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Atomic Bombing of; Nuclear Weapons; Yalta Conference.

Bibliography

Charles L. Mee Jr. , Meeting at Potsdam, 1975.
James L. Gormly , From Potsdam to Cold War: Big Three Diplomacy, 1945–1947, 1990.

Emily S. Rosenberg

POTSDAM CONFERENCE

POTSDAM CONFERENCE took place in a suburb of Berlin from 17 July to 2 August 1945. President Harry S. Truman, Marshal Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced at midpoint by the newly elected Clement Attlee) met to reach accord on postwar Germany and the Pacific war. The "big three" confirmed a decision, made at Yalta, to divide Germany into British, American, Russian, and French occupation zones. They pledged to treat Germany as a single economic unit while allowing each of the four occupying commanders to veto any decision. Germany was slated for total disarmament, demilitarization, the trial of war criminals, and denazification. Other provisions included reparations (with the final sum unspecified); the forced return of 6.5 million Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary in an "orderly and humane manner"; and the temporary retention of the Oder-Neisse boundary. The Council of Foreign Ministers, a body composed of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia, was entrusted with preparing peace terms for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Finland. On 14 July, having been informed of the successful atomic tests at Alamogordo, New Mexico, three days before, Truman told an unsurprised Stalin, "We have perfected a very powerful explosive which we are going to use against the Japanese and we think it will end the war."

As Russia had not yet declared war on Japan, the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July 1945 was signed only by the United States and Great Britain, though with China's concurrence. It threatened the "utter devastation of the Japanese homeland" unless Japan accepted "unconditional surrender." Specific terms included total disarmament, the destruction of its "war-making power," the limitation of Japan's sovereignty to its home islands, stern justice to "all war criminals," the establishment of "fundamental human rights," the payment of "just reparations in kind," and the limitation of its economy to peacetime undertakings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Feis, Herbert. Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1960.

Gormly, James L. From Potsdam to the Cold War: Big Three Diplomacy, 1945–1947. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1990.

Mee, Charles L., Jr. Meeting at Potsdam. New York: M. Evans, 1975.

Justus D.Doenecke

See alsoGermany, American Occupation of ; Japan, Relations with ; World War II ; Yalta Conference .

Potsdam Conference (17 July–2 Aug. 1945) A congress held by the victorious Allies in World War II at the former Hohenzollern palace in Potsdam outside Berlin. After Tehran and Yalta, this was the last World War II conference of the ‘Big Three’, and was convened to decide on a new postwar order, now that war had come to an end. The Soviet Union was led by the experienced and hard-edged Stalin, while the USA was represented by its new President, Truman. Nine days into the conference, on 28 July 1945, the veteran Churchill was replaced by the inexperienced Attlee as the UK's representative. Polish authority over German lands east of the Oder-Neisse Line, with which Stalin had compensated the Poles for lands east of the Curzon Line which he had taken away from them, was accepted, albeit under US and British protest. At the same time, the expulsion of Germans from all non-German territories (Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary) was accepted and legalized.

With regard to Germany itself, measures were to be taken to extinguish Nazism, and to prepare the German people for democratic government, so that Germany could never again pose a threat to its neighbours. In particular, this meant complete German disarmament, destruction of war industries, dissolution of militarist or Fascist organizations, the lifting of Nazi laws, punishment of war criminals, and the removal of Nazi sympathizers from public or privileged office. More positively, there was to be decentralization, re-establishment of local self-government, establishment of democratic parties, and a renewal of the legal and educational system. Germany's economic unity was to be preserved, though this was undermined by the decision that each power could take reparations from its own occupied territories. These results were confirmed by France on 7 August 1945. With regard to subsequent developments, Stalin has generally been considered the winner of the conference, as he managed to legalize his control over almost half of German territory. However, while the inexperience of Truman and Attlee did not help, it has often been overlooked that the USSR had not only created a fait accompli by liberating most of these areas, but that, together with Poland, it had suffered the greatest destruction and loss of life of any country in the war.

Potsdam Declaration

Potsdam Conference meeting (July 17–Aug. 2, 1945) of the principal Allies in World War II (the United States, the USSR, and Great Britain) to clarify and implement agreements previously reached at the Yalta Conference . The chief representatives were President Truman, Premier Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill, and, after Churchill's defeat in the British elections, Prime Minister Attlee. The foreign ministers of the three nations were also present. The so-called Potsdam Agreement transferred the chief authority in Germany to the American, Russian, British, and French military commanders in their respective zones of occupation and to a four-power Allied Control Council for matters regarding the whole of Germany. The Allies set up a new system of rule for Germany, aimed at outlawing National Socialism and abolishing Nazi ideology, at disarming Germany and preventing its again becoming a military power, and at fostering democratic ideals and introducing representative and elective principles of government. The German economy was to be decentralized, and monopolies were to be broken up; the development of agriculture was to be emphasized in reorganizing the German economy. All former German territory E of the Oder and Neisse rivers was transferred to Polish and Soviet administration, pending a final peace treaty. The German population in these territories and in other parts of Eastern Europe was to be transferred to Germany. A mode for German reparations payments was outlined. A Council of Foreign Ministers was established to consider peace settlements. The so-called Potsdam Declaration issued (July 26) by the conference presented an ultimatum to Japan, offering that nation the choice between unconditional surrender and total destruction. (The atom bomb was not actually mentioned.) Rarely was any agreement so consistently breached as was the Potsdam Agreement. The work of the Allied Control Council for Germany was at first blocked by France, which did not feel bound by an agreement to which it had not been party; the council had not even begun to function when the rift caused by the cold war broke it up. The vague wording and tentative provisions of the Potsdam Agreement, allowing a wide range of interpretation, have been blamed for its failure.

Potsdam Conference (1945).On 17 July 1945, Josef Stalin, Harry S. Truman, and Winston S. Churchill (who was replaced on 28 July by Clement Attlee) met for eleven days at Potsdam near Berlin. They faced two related issues: ending the war against Japan and restructuring Germany and Eastern Europe.

Germany ranked high on everyone's list of problems. Truman's goal was to create principles to guide the proposed Allied Control Council in preparing for unification of Germany. Stalin was concerned about reparations and Germany's border with Poland. Accepted were the American principles, including denazification, demilitarization, and democratization, and the Soviet desire for the Oder and Neisse Rivers as Germany's eastern border. Agreeing on reparations was difficult and was resolved only at the end of the conference by a formula calling for each power to take reparations from its zone, with the Soviets receiving some from other zones.

As for Japan, Stalin agreed to Soviet entry into the war by mid‐August, while Truman informed Stalin in vague terms about a new weapon to be used against Japan, but failed to specify that it was an atomic bomb. At the end of the meeting, Truman and Attlee issued the Potsdam Declaration, calling upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face destruction.

Specifics about reparations and issues of Soviet‐occupied Eastern Europe were deferred to a newly created Council of Foreign Ministers, which was to draft the peace treaties. This allowed general agreement, and left each power partially satisfied. Much was left undone, and the Big Three's ability to cooperate and work toward similar postwar goals was still unknown. Potsdam remains a transition point as the former Allies moved from World War II to the Cold War.
[See also World War II: Postwar Impact; World War II: Changing Interpretations.]

Bibliography

Herbert Feis , Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference, 1960.
Charles Mee, Jr. , Meeting at Potsdam, 1975.

James Gormly

Potsdam Conference (17 July–2 August 1945) The last of the World War II summit conferences. Held in the former Hohenzollern palace at Potsdam, outside Berlin, the conference was attended by CHURCHILL (replaced by ATTLEE during its course), STALIN, and TRUMAN. It implicitly acknowledged Soviet predominance in eastern Europe by, among other things, accepting Polish and Soviet administration of certain German territories, and by agreeing to the transfer of the ten million or so German people in these territories and other parts of eastern Europe to Germany. It established a Council of Foreign Ministers to handle peace treaties, made plans to introduce representative and elective principles of government in Germany, discussed REPARATIONS, outlawed the Nazi Party, de-monopolized much of German industry, and decentralized its economy. The final agreement, vaguely worded and tentative, was consistently breached in the aftermath of German surrender, as the communist and capitalist countries polarized into their respective blocs. The Potsdam Declaration (26 July 1945) demanded from Japan the choice between unconditional surrender or total destruction.

Potsdam conference, 16 July–2 August 1945. This overlapped a British general election, Churchill and Eden being replaced midway by Attlee and Bevin (Labour). The Americans and Russians, however, observed no significant change in British policy, with both struck by Bevin's pugnacity. A compromise was reached on German reparations—the Treasury having earlier expressed its concern at the cost of the British occupation zone unless reparations were restricted and Germany treated as one economic unit. Churchill hoped that the acquisition of the atomic bomb by the USA would increase the bargaining power of the West with the USSR as well as hasten the end of the war with Japan.

C. J. Bartlett

Potsdam Conference a conference held at Potsdam, near Berlin, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, during World War II. Attending were President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who was replaced on July 28 by Clement Attlee), and Soviet premier Josef Stalin. They discussed peace treaties, which were drafted by a Council of Foreign Ministers, to restructure Germany and Eastern Europe and to end the war against Japan. It was the last Allied summit conference.

During the conference, Truman spoke to Stalin about a new weapon to be used against Japan, but failed to identify it as an atomic bomb.

Potsdam Conference (July–August 1945) Summit meeting of Allied leaders in World War II, held in Potsdam, Germany. The main participants were US President Harry S Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the British Prime Minister, at first Churchill, later Attlee. It dealt with problems arising from Germany's defeat, including the arrangements for military occupation and the trial of war criminals, and issued an ultimatum to Japan demanding surrender.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/potsdam.htm

Potsdam conference, 16 July–2 August 1945. This overlapped a British general election, Churchill and Eden being replaced midway by Attlee and Bevin (Labour). The Americans and Russians, however, observed no significant change in British policy, with both struck by Bevin's pugnacity. Churchill hoped that the acquisition of the atomic bomb by the USA would increase the bargaining power of the West with the USSR as well as hasten the end of the war with Japan.