Topic 5: The Potsdam Conference Flashcards
When was the Conference?
July 1945
Who?
- USA- Harry Truman
- Britain- Clement Attlee
- Soviet Union- Stalin
When did Roosevelt die?
April 1945
What happened to Churchill?
Lost an election to Labor Clement Attlee.
Why?
The Yalta conference had shown difficulties in coming to a decisions.
Where?
Potsdam Germany
Points that were agreed?
- Germany would be divided up as agreed in Yalta and Allies would receive reparations.
- Poland’s east border would be moved west to rivers Oder and Neisse.
- Germans living in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia would be sent back to Germany.
- Nazi party was banned and leaders tried as war criminals.
Disagreements?
- Britain and USA wanted a greater say in the way eastern Europe was run, they did not accept that Stalin had the right to set up pro-soviet governments in these countries. Stalin said that this is what they had agreed in Yalta.
- The Soviet union wanted to impose severe reparations on Germany to cripple it for years to come. Truman blocked this.
- The soviet union wanted to share in the occupation of Japan once it was defeated. Truman refused.
What happened with the atomic Bomb?
- USA tested in July 1945, he informed them at Potsdam conference,
- because of this Stalin began to pour lots of money into research.
- the USA new it could mean a big war is the Soviets had a Atomic Bomb.
what did the Soviets think of Truman?
- They did not like him
- in the first month of him being in office there was an angry exchange between him and the relation minister Molotov demanding that the Soviets carry out the obligations from Yalta.
- Truman said that they were going to have to get tough with Russia.
what was Clement Attlee like?
inexperienced, so the conference was really just between Stalin and Truman.
What had the Soviets done by the conference?
they had liberated the whole of eastern Europe from Nazi control.
What did the UK and USA want to do after this?
free elections to set up democratic states. However they could not because Russian troops had stayed there.
What did Churchill’s iron curtain speech mean?
- Made from USA, Fulton, Missouri
- all the capitals had been lost because they had been engulfed by the Communist empire.
- there was a huge east west divide
- Stalin accused Churchill of trying to start a war.
Sum up the Conference?
- Truman bringing Iron fist-ted approach pushing Russia to make tough decisions.
- The true natures and differences of communism and capitalism were reveled and both sides were prepared for war.
- Stalin had not followed the agreements made in Yalta
- An iron curtain divided Europe
- Political duel between Stalin and Truman.
