Potsdam Conference 1945

The final conference of the war took place in Potsdam which is town just outside of Berlin. It took place across July and August in 1945. Whilst it took place only just after Yalta the dynamic had changed significantly.

Firstly, Stalin was the only constant from the previous conferences. Shortly after the Yalta conference, Roosevelt had died to be replaced by Harry S Truman his Vice President. Churchill had also been replaced as he had lost the British General Election and the new Prime Minister was Labour’s Clement Attlee. There were also two new global developments at the time of the Potsdam conference. The US had developed the atomic bomb, the ultimate new weapon. There was also the German surrender from May 1945.

The replacement of leaders, meant that Stalin had the upper hand. Truman was relatively new to the diplomatic discussions as he was often left out of the loop by Roosevelt. He did however, know that the United States had successfully developed the Atomic Bomb. Britain’s Attlee was also not interested in the conference as he had been newly elected and wanted to get on with the business of governing Britain.

The Potsdam Conference did produce several results. Firstly it confirmed the division of Germany into four zone each run by a different power. This would also be extended to Berlin despite Berlin being inside the Soviet sector of Germany. Truman however disagreed with the reparations repayments. He did not want Germany economically crippled as this might bring about resentment and a repeat of Nazism. Truman did agree that reparations could be taken from each zone for each country. Truman was also suspicious of Stalin’s intentions. The Soviet Army, was starting to occupy the countries it had repelled the Nazis from.

Truman also wanted to address Poland again. He wanted there to be new borders and for Soviet influence to reduced over Poland.