The Potsdam Conference, which took place near Berlin from 17 July to 2 August 1945, was the last of the three major meetings of World War II. It was attended by Prime Minister Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, the new US President Harry S. Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain (replaced on 28th July by his successor Clement Attlee). On July 26, the leaders issued a statement calling for Japan`s “unconditional surrender” and concealing the fact that they had privately agreed to let Japan keep its emperor. Otherwise, the conference focused on post-war Europe. A Council of Foreign Ministers was agreed, comprising the big three, as well as China and France. The German military administration was established with an Allied Central Control Board (the requirement that decisions be unanimous would later prove paralyzing). The Heads of State and Government reached various agreements on the German economy, with emphasis on the development of agriculture and non-military industry. The institutions that had controlled the economy under the Nazis were to be decentralized, but all of Germany would be treated as one economic entity. War criminals would be brought to justice.

Stalin`s request to define the German-Polish border was postponed to the peace treaty, but the conference agreed to his transfer of lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers from Germany to Poland. In the case of reparations, a compromise was made on the basis of the exchange of capital goods from the western zone for raw materials from the east. He resolved a dispute but set the precedent for the management of the German economy by zone rather than globally, as the Western powers had hoped. Although post-war Europe dominated potsdam`s agenda, the war was lurking behind the scenes in the Pacific. Truman received news of the success of the atomic bomb test shortly after his arrival in Potsdam; He broke the news to Churchill, but only casually mentioned “a new weapon” to Stalin. Truman continued to ask Stalin for help against Japan, but he knew that if the bomb succeeded, Russian help would not be needed. In fact, the bomb would give the United States unprecedented power in the postwar world. The reader`s companion to American history. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

The Germans of Czechoslovakia (34% of the population of the territory of the current Czech Republic), known as Sudeten Germans, but also Carpathian Germans, were expelled from the Sudetenland, where they formed a majority, linguistic slaves from Central Bohemia and Moravia, and from the city of Prague. But in Potsdam, Truman and Byrnes sought to reduce Soviet demands, insisting that reparations from the occupying powers should only be demanded from their own zone of occupation. This was because the Americans wanted to avoid a repeat of what happened after the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. Then, it was claimed, the harsh reparations imposed by the treaty on a defeated Germany caused economic crises, which in turn led to the rise of Hitler. The agreement, which was implemented in the form of a communiqué, was not a peace treaty under international law, although it created a fait accompli. It was replaced by the Treaty on the Final Settlement of Germany, signed on 12 September 1990. There was also agreement on whether it was desirable to end the “current abnormal position” of the German war allies – Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania – and its bellicose Co-Finland. A Council of Foreign Ministers would be set up to conclude peace treaties with them that would be concluded after a conference with the Big Three and “other interested allied governments”. This was duly done the following year in Paris and signed the treaties on February 10, 1947. The Potsdam Conference is perhaps best known for President Truman`s conversation with Stalin on September 24.

July 1945, during which the president informed the Soviet leader that the United States had managed to detonate the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Historians have often interpreted Truman`s somewhat firm stance during the negotiations with the U.S. negotiating team`s belief that U.S. nuclear capabilities would strengthen its bargaining power. Stalin, however, was already well informed about the US nuclear program, thanks to the Soviet intelligence network; He has therefore also stood firm in his positions. This situation made the negotiations difficult. The leaders of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, who had remained allies throughout the war despite their differences, never met again to discuss cooperation in post-war reconstruction. In July 1945, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany, confirming earlier agreements on post-war Germany and repeating calls for the unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces, declaring in particular that “the alternative for Japan is immediate and total destruction.” After the end of the Second World War in Europe (1939-45) and the decisions of the previous conferences in Tehran, Casablanca and Yalta, the Allies had assumed the highest authority over Germany by the Berlin Declaration of 5 June 1945. At the Conference of the Three Powers in Berlin (official title of the Potsdam Conference) from 17 July to 2 August 1945, they approved and adopted the minutes of the deliberations of 1 August 1945, which were signed at the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam.

The signatories were General Secretary Joseph Stalin, President Harry S. Truman and Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who had replaced Winston Churchill as the representative of the United Kingdom following the 1945 British general election. The three powers also agreed to invite France and China to participate as members of the Council of Foreign Ministers set up to monitor the agreement. The Provisional Government of the French Republic accepted the invitation on 7 August, with the crucial reservation that it would not accept a priori any obligation to possibly reconstitute a central government in Germany. Despite many differences of opinion, the British delegation, Stalin and Truman, managed to reach some agreements in Potsdam. It was decided that Germany should be occupied by the Americans, the British, the French and the Soviets. It would also be demilitarized and disarmed. German industry, which could be used for military purposes, had to be dismantled and the educational and judicial system of the defeated country cleansed of Nazi influence. Nazi racial laws and other laws were to be repealed, and war criminals were to be tried and punished. German society was to be democratically reshaped, but the country`s reconstitution as a sovereign state was postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, Germany was to be headed by an Allied control commission composed of the four occupying powers.

The three Governments took note of the talks held in London in recent weeks between representatives of the British, the United States, the Soviet Union and France with a view to reaching agreement on methods of trial of major war criminals whose crimes have no particular geographical location under the Moscow Declaration of October 1943. The three governments reaffirm their intention to bring these criminals to justice promptly and safely. They hope that the negotiations in London will lead to a speedy agreement to that effect, and they consider it very important that the trial of these serious criminals begins as soon as possible. The first list of accused will be published before 1 September. Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Hungary sought to join the United Nations at the end of World War II. The United States supported Italy as a member of the UN, while the Soviets supported the others. At a plenary session in Potsdam, Stalin said: “If a government is not fascist, a government is democratic.” Why was this statement made? Look at Yalta`s agreement to find your answer. Argue for or against.

The Potsdam Agreement was the August 1945 agreement between three World War II allies, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. It was about the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders and the entire European war zone. It also dealt with the demilitarization of Germany, reparations and the prosecution of war criminals. On the tedious question of what constitutes a “democratic Poland,” the Russians and Western allies would never agree. But as with a number of other issues raised in Potsdam, it was handed over to the Council of Foreign Ministers in an attempt to resolve it. Despite many differences of opinion, the Allied leaders managed to reach some agreements in Potsdam. For example, negotiators confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation. According to the minutes of the conference, there should be “complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany”; all aspects of German industry that could be used for military purposes had to be dismantled; all German military and paramilitary forces should be eliminated; and the production of all military equipment in Germany was banned. .

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