
A picture of a conference session
including Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich
Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William D.
Clement Attlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam
Conference, July 1945.
The
Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof
, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm
Hohenzollern, in Potsdam
, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2
August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union
, the United Kingdom
, and the United States
. The three nations were represented by
Communist
Party General Secretary Joseph
Stalin,
Prime
Ministers Winston Churchill
and later
Clement Attlee, and
President Harry S. Truman.Stalin, Churchill, and Truman — as
well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill, awaiting the
outcome of the
1945 general election,
and then replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the
Labour Party's victory over the
Conservatives — gathered to decide
how to administer punishment to the defeated
Nazi Germany, which had agreed to
unconditional surrender nine weeks
earlier, on May 8 (
V-E Day).
The goals of the conference also included the establishment of
post-war order, peace treaties issues, and countering the effects
of war.
Relationships between 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.
1. The Soviet Union was occupying most of
Central and Eastern Europe
By July, the
Red Army effectively
controlled the Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Bulgaria and Romania, and refugees were fleeing out of these
countries fearing a Communist take-over,
Stalin had set up a Communist government in
Poland, ignoring the wishes of the majority of Poles. Britain and
the America protested, but Stalin defended his actions. He insisted
that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against
possible future attacks and believed that it was a legitimate
sphere of Soviet influence.
2. Britain had a new Prime
Minister
The results of the British election became known during the
conference. As a result of the
Labour
Party victory over the
Conservative Party the leadership
changed hands. Consequently, British Prime Minister
Clement Attlee assumed leadership following
Winston Churchill, whose Soviet
policy since the early 1940s had differed considerably from former
U.S. President Roosevelt's, with Churchill believing Stalin to be a
"devil"-like tyrant leading a vile system.
3. America had a new
President
On 12 April 1945, President
Roosevelt died. He was replaced by his
Vice-President,
Harry Truman. Truman,
wholly inexperienced in foreign affairs, took a far harder stance
with the Soviet Union. Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a
potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe,
explaining that "I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind
of a man" and reasoning "I think that if I give him everything I
possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse
oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a
world of democracy and peace." Truman was much more anti-Communist
than Roosevelt and was very suspicious of Stalin. 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.
4. The US had tested an atomic
bomb
On 16 July
1945, the Americans successfully tested an atomic bomb at Alamogordo
in the New Mexico desert, USA. July 21;
Churchill and Truman agreed that the weapon should be used. Truman
did not tell Stalin of the weapon until July 25 when he advised
Stalin that America had 'a new weapon of unusually destructive
force.' While Stalin seemed unaffected at hearing this news, he was
later noted as being outraged at President Truman for not sharing
this information earlier. Stalin was actually aware of the atomic
bomb before Truman was as he had two spies that had infiltrated the
Manhattan Project. By the 26th of
July, the Potsdam Declaration had been broadcast to Japan,
threatening total destruction unless the Imperial Japanese
government submitted to unconditional surrender. It was at Potsdam
where Truman first alluded to Stalin that the Americans had
developed the
atomic bomb and might use
it against Japan, which they later did on August 6 and August 9.
Joseph Stalin suggested that Truman preside over the conference as
the only
head of state attending, a
recommendation accepted by Attlee.
Agreements made between the leaders at Potsdam
Potsdam Agreement
- Main article: Potsdam
Agreement
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
- See also: Expulsion of Germans
after World War II, The industrial plans for
Germany and Oder-Neisse line,
former eastern
territories of Germany
- Issuance of a statement of aims of the occupation of Germany by
the Allies: demilitarization,
denazification, democratization, decentralization and decartelization.
- Division of Germany
and Austria
respectively
into four occupation zones (earlier agreed in principle at Yalta
), and the
similar division of each's capital, Berlin
and Vienna
, into four
zones.
- Agreement on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals
.
- Reversion of all German annexations in
Europe, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine
, Austria
and the westernmost parts of
Poland
- Germany's eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the
Oder-Neisse line, effectively
reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to its 1937
borders. The territories east of the new border comprised East 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.
- Expulsion of
the German populations remaining beyond the new eastern borders
of Germany.
- Agreement on war reparations to
the Soviet Union from their zone of occupation in Germany. 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.
- Ensuring 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 The industrial plans for
Germany).
- Destruction of German industrial war-potential 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-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 and international 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 and light industry economy. German exports were
to be coal, beer, toys,
textiles, etc — to take the place of the
heavy industrial products which
formed most of Germany's pre-war exports.
Poland
- See also: Western betrayal
and Territorial
changes of Poland after World War II
- A Provisional Government
of National Unity recognized by all three powers should be
created (known as the Lublin Poles). Recognition of the Soviet
controlled government by the Western Powers effectively meant the
end of recognition for the existing Polish 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 the Oder-Neisse line, defined by the Oder and
Neisse rivers. Parts of East
Prussia and the former Free City of Danzig
should be under Polish administration.
However the final delimitation of the
western frontier of Poland should await the peace settlement (which
would take place at the Treaty on
the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in 1990)
- The Soviet Union declared it will settle the reparation claims
of Poland from its own share of the overall reparation
payments.
Potsdam Declaration
- Main article: Potsdam
Declaration
In
addition to the Potsdam Agreement, on July 26 Churchill, Truman,
and Chiang Kai-shek (the Soviet
Union was not at war with Japan) issued the Potsdam
Declaration which outlined the terms of surrender for Japan
during WWII
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 United States,
Great Britain, China and USSR) or meet "prompt and utter
destruction", which did not mention the new bomb.
After prime minister
Kantaro Suzuki's declaration that the
Empire of
Japan
should ignore (mokusatsu)
the ultimatum, atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9,
1945, respectively.
Following the conference, Polish diplomat and politician Michael W.
Zwierzanski published a memoir, based on his role at the
conference. However, whilst the memoir was focused on the political
events and implications of the agreement, the memoir was named
after his original claim to fame - being the diplomat that dropped
a tray of foodstuffs onto the lap of Stalin.
My Bungle: and the
Conference That I Witnessed (translated from its original
Polish) documented how he, and the other Polish representatives,
failed to secure all of their terms of agreement. Most notably,
Zwierzanski, though a junior diplomat in 1945, came up with what
became known as "The Flim Test", which would put in place an
international agreement on Poland's defensive infrastructure.
Stalin and Churchill, however, vetoed Zwierzanski's flagship
proposal; Roosevelt was the only head of government to openly
support flims.
In
addition to annexing
several occupied countries as (or into) Soviet Socialist Republics, other
countries were converted into Soviet
Satellite states within the Eastern
Bloc, such as the People's Republic of Poland, the
People's Republic of
Hungary, the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic
, the People's Republic of Romania,
the Federal People's Republic of
Yugoslavia
the People's Republic of Albania,
and later East
Germany
from the Soviet zone of German
occupation.
The conference is the beginning of tension between the United
States and the USSR, as well as a possible forewarning to the
Cold War.
Previous major conferences
- the
Yalta
Conference
, February 4
to February 11, 1945
- the Second Quebec
Conference, September 12 to September 16, 1944
- the Tehran Conference,
November 28 to December 1, 1943
- the Cairo Conference, November
22 to November 26, 1943
- the Casablanca Conference,
January 14 to January 24, 1943
See also
Notes
- Description of photograph, Truman Library.
- Potsdam Conference, Encyclopaedia
Britannica
- BBC Fact File: Potsdam Conference
- James Stewart Martin. All Honorable Men (1950) p.
191.
- Senn, Alfred Erich, Lithuania 1940 : revolution from
above, Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2007 ISBN
9789042022256
- 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
- Eastern bloc, The American Heritage® New
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2005.
References
Further reading
- Michael Beschloss. The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and
the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 (2002)
- Farquharson, J. E. "Anglo-American Policy on German Reparations
from Yalta to Potsdam." English Historical Review 1997
112(448): 904-926. Issn: 0013-8266 Fulltext: in Jstor
- Gimbel, John. "On the Implementation of the Potsdam Agreement:
an Essay on U. S. Postwar German Policy." Political Science
Quarterly 1972 87(2): 242-269. Issn: 0032-3195 Fulltext: in
Jstor
- Gormly, James L. From Potsdam to the Cold War: Big Three
Diplomacy, 1945-1947. Scholarly Resources, 1990. 242 pp.
- Mee, Charles L., Jr. Meeting at Potsdam. M. Evans
& Company, 1975. 370 pp.
- Thackrah, J. R. "Aspects of American and British Policy Towards
Poland from the Yalta to the Potsdam Conferences, 1945." Polish
Review 1976 21(4): 3-34. Issn: 0032-2970
- Zayas, Alfred M. de. Nemesis at Potsdam: The
Anglo-Americans and the Expulsion of the Germans, Background,
Execution, Consequences. Routledge, 1977. 268 pp.
- 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
- 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 Office, 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 Office, 1945
- European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany Foreign
relations of the United States : diplomatic papers, 1945.
- Cornerstone of Steel, Time Magazine, January 21, 1946
- Cost of Defeat, Time
Magazine, April 8, 1946
- Pas de Pagaille! Time
Magazine, July 28, 1947
- Agreements of the Berlin (Potsdam)
Conference
- Interview with James W. Riddleberger Chief, Division of Central European
Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State, 1944-47
- "The Myth of Potsdam," in B. Heuser et al.,
eds., Myths in History (Providence, RI and Oxford: Berghahn,
1998)
- "The United States, France, and the Question of
German Power, 1945-1960," in Stephen Schuker, ed., Deutschland
und Frankreich vom Konflikt zur Aussöhnung: Die Gestaltung der
westeuropäischen Sicherheit 1914-1963, Schriften des Historischen
Kollegs, Kolloquien 46 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000).
- U.S. Economic Policy Towards defeated countries April,
1946.
- Lebensraum