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The Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference was a meeting that took place on July 16, 1945. This conference ended World War Two. The victorious countries attended this conference. These were the Soviet Union, the Great Britain, and the United States. Each country had their own representative. The representatives that attended the conference are known as the "Big Three." The "Big Three" consisted of President Harry S. Truman from the United States, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill was later replaced by Clement Attlee. The three leaders came together to to discuss the ramifications for the Nazi Germany regime and Austria. toc 


 * == THE BIG THREE == ||  ||
 * The Big Three were the represenatives at the Potsdam Conference. They were Stalin, Truman, and Churchill to start, later Churchill was replaced by Attlee.

President Harry S. Truman came to the conference from the United States. It is believed that they delayed the meeting to July so he would have a chance to test his atomic bomb before attending the conference. He wanted to make sure the test of the atomic bomb was successful.This was because he wanted to propose it as an idea during the conference. The atomic bomb was not the main purpose of the conference, but President Truman did bring it up to Stalin. Truman was very against communism. This led to the Truman Doctrine which said that the United States would protect people not involved in communism (Mishra).

Joseph Stalin was the Soviet Premier. He represented the Soviet Union at the conference. Throughout the conference he received information that the United States was developing a new kind of weapon. This weapon eventually was found to be the atomic bomb. Stalin was easily angered because he was beaten by his father as a child. This connects to his rule over the Soviet Union because he ruled as a dictator and harshly punished those who opposed him. He stared communism in Russia because he was influenced by Karl Marx who was the person who made up communism (Horvits, and Catherwood).

Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Throughout the conference the British elections for Prime Minister were taking place. Attlee beat out Churchill in the election. Attlee was completely for going to war against Germany. He was against the Soviet expanding, but did not have very much power over the actual war (Axelrod). ||    ||

The Three Conferences
The potsdam conference was the third conference between these three countries (Carlisle 1).

The first conference was the Tehran conference. It went from November 28 - December 1. The leaders who participated in the conference were Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. They met to plan the invasion of occupied France (Carlisle 1).

The second conference was the Yalta conference. It took place from February 4 to February 11 in 1945. At this conference the soviet union agreed to declare war on Japan. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin were the important leaders at this conference (Carlisle 1).

The third and final meeting was the Potsdam Conference. The three me to discuss German occupation, German war reputations, and Soviet entry into war on Japan. The three representatives from these countries were Winston Churchill who was later replaced by Clement Attlee from Britain, Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union, and Harry S. Truman from the United States (Carlisle 1). The use of atomic bombs were discussed and made final at the conference.

Germany's Division
In result of the Potsdam Conference, Germany was divided up into four zones which were governed by Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union.

The occupational zones in Germany were governed by the commanders in chief of each of the Allies occupational armies. Each power was given products from the occupational zone that they had control of. However, the Soviet Union recoved some industiral machinery along with their products from their zone. This was extra for them because there was more war damage done to the Soviet union than the other countries. Because the machinery was not located in their zone, the Soviets gave food products to the zones that the machinery was taken out of. Germany was split into these zones to get rid of Nazism, start a democracy, split up government power, take away some of Germany's industrial power, and take away Germany's military (Axelrod 1).

Everlasting Effects
The Potsdam conference created many lasting effects such as the devistation of japan and the change in Polish borders.

During the conference the Big Three decided to drop atomic bombs on Japan in order to end the war. Two bombs were used. "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima and "Fat Man" was dropped in Nagasaki. After "Little Boy" exploded, 50 percent of Hiroshima was blown up. When "Fat Man" was dropped it devistated 39 percent of Nagasaki. These bombs killed many Japanese, but saved many Allied soldiers. These bombs killed about 210,000 Japanese people and sevelery injured around 140,00. Because the Allies used these bombs, they saved about 500,000 United States soldiers. Radiation was also a factor contributing to death. Over only days the people most severely exposed to the radiation died. the farther away the person was from the bombs the less serious the injuries were. 30 years after the bombings 400 had died from caner related to the bombs. Stillbirths and birth defcts were also consequences of the two bombs. After the bombings Japan surrendered and the estimated total of saved lives was about 1,250,000 (Axelrod 1).

The polish borders were also changed as a result of the Potsdam Conference. They were moved to the Neisse and Oder Rivers and into part of Prussia.

Decisions Leading to Tensions
Several decisions made at the Potsdam conference lead to tension between the superpowers and Germany. After the war the Soviet Union and the United staes became superpowers. While they were each controlling thier own part of Germany they became watchful of each others moves. This created tension and from then on it only got worse. The Soviet Union was not happy that the United States produced the first atomic bombs, so they started researching new technologies for weapons that could cause major damage.Another cause for tension was economic differences. While Russia led a Communist economy most of Europe and the United States did not. The extreame differences in these systems led the former allies to become mistrustful of each other. After the war the United States and the Soviet Union exchanged threats that expanded into the cold war after the world was split into two alliances for the United States or for the Soviets (Philips and Axelrod).