The Potsdam Conference: July 17

August 1, 1945

Occurring five months after the Yalta conference, the meetings in

Potsdam revolved around some similar issues, but the context of
the conference, and the actors, had changed dramatically.
Germany had been defeated, Roosevelt was dead and replaced
by Truman, the policies and concessions of Yalta were being
questioned, and the successful testing of the atomic bomb would
ultimately change the fate of the post-war world.

Potsdam Conference

Participants were the Soviet Union,

the United Kingdom and the United
States. The three powers were
represented by Communist Party
General Secretary Joseph Stalin,
Prime Ministers Winston Churchill,
and, later, Clement Attlee and
President Harry S. Truman.

Potsdam Conference

The primary goals of the conference was to come

to terms over three important issues that were
left unresolved from Yalta; the fate of former Nazi
satellite states (especially Italy), the borders of
Poland, and the question of reparations, which
was the subject of much debate and contestation
between all three sides

Potsdam Conference

The issue of reparations was contested between

the two sides when the Americans and British
argued that payments were to be made first to
the creditors (American and British bankers),
while Molotov argued that the Soviets required
initial payments to offset the huge scale of
destruction and devastation Germany had caused
to the Soviet Union

Potsdam Conference

On matters of former satellite states there was

also a failure of negotiations: when asked if Stalin
would normalize relations with Italy, Stalin
responded by basically asking Truman and the
American government to normalize relations with
Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary. As Byrnes noted,
however, Truman could not recognize the three
Eastern European states, not with their current
governments at least.

Potsdam Conference

Finally, on the question of Polands frontiers, there

too existed conflict. The American delegation in
particular, feared that by giving more land to
Poland, they were effectively constraining and
damaging Germanys potential economic and
industrial rebirth .
Despite a complete failure of negotiations in the
initial phase of the Potsdam conference, Yergin
argues that there would eventually be renewed,
and successful, attempts at resolving these
disputes in the near future, thanks in part to the
successful testing of the most destructive weapon
invented by man.

Results of the Potsdam

Conference: success or failure?

Compromise was made to increase the frontiers of Poland,

pushing it westward up to the Oder-Neisse line. In return, a
demand for a fixed sum compensation out of Germanys
industry was dropped by Stalin. Instead, it was agreed upon
by the Big Three that reparations would be extracted out of
their own occupation zones, with the Soviet Union being
allowed an additional 15% of unnecessary capital
equipment out of Western zones in return for raw materials
and foodstuffs from the East, and an additional 10% with no
exchange
Regarding the spheres of influence over Europe, the
common approach was to let each side retain their separate
interests in their own zones, for lack of a better approach:
Because they could not agree on how to govern Europe,
they began to divide it

Results of the Potsdam

Conference: success or failure?

Thus, the fate of Eastern Europe was left in the hands of the
Soviet Union, while Italy remained in the hands of the
Western powers
Like Yalta, the Potsdam conference can be seen as a
success in the form of mutual cooperation between the two
emerging superpowers of the world. Despite their radically
polarized perspectives and ambitions, Truman and Stalin,
with the help of their aides and advisors, were able to
hammer out a post-war environment that left both sides
relatively satisfied.
However, like Yalta, Potsdam can also be seen as a failure
due to some of the controversies that arose shortly after its
conclusion. The weight of the Atomic Bomb had cast an
uncertain future for the balance of power in not only
Europe, but of the world.