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On July 17, 1945, the Potsdam Conference began. The war in Europe had ended in the heart of Berlin two months before, and the heads of state from the United States, England, and Soviet Union met in Potsdam (one of the few relatively undamaged suburbs of Berlin). In a somewhat interesting twist, the 3 leaders there at the start of the Conference (Truman, Churchill, and Stalin) would not be there at its conclusion. Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party had been recently defeated in the election and he would be replaced by Labour Leader Clement Attlee.
The agenda for the 11-day meeting mostly involved the disposition of Germany and all the territories she had acquired before, and during, the War itself. The most famous ”action items” that came from the Conference were:
- The division of Germany into 4 sectors, controlled by England, France, the U.S., and the U.S.S.R. The capital city of Berlin would be similarly divided. This had already been proposed earlier in the year at Yalta, but it was confirmed and finalized in Potsdam.
- Austria, taken over by Germany in 1938, would exist, like Germany, as an Allied-administered country. As it turned out, while it was divided like Germany, the fact that the country had a Provisional Government in place before the end of hostilities (April 27, 1945) meant that Austria pretty much ran its own affairs.
- How to handle war crimes issues.
- Reparations.
- The disposition of Poland and the former free city of Danzig. Poland essentially became a Soviet satellite. Danzig (later Gdansk) would be administered by the Poles.
It should also be noted that, early in the Conference proceedings, President Truman was notified of the successful Trinity Test. Couched in vague terms, he then told Stalin that the U.S. had developed a new secret super weapon for potential use against Japan. Stalin probably acted surprised, but there is no doubt that when he encouraged Truman to use the weapon, the Soviet leader already knew much about the Plutonium device just detonated.
Recommended Reading: War Summits: The Meetings that Shaped World War II and the Postwar World
