The Potsdam Conference was held from July 16th, 1945 to August 2nd 1945. The Potsdam Conference is considered to be the last of World War Two’s conferences. At Yalta and Tehran, the so-called ‘Big Three’ attended – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. At Potsdam, America was represented by Harry Truman, the Soviet Union still by Stalin and Britain, first by Winston Churchill and then by Clement Atlee, who defeated Churchill in the post-war British election in 1945 which took place during the actual conference. Churchill attended the conference up to July 24th, and Atlee, as Prime Minister of Britain, after this date until the close of the conference.

The issues that had to be discussed at the conference were many. However, by the time of the finish, America had still not used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima so Stalin, with a huge military presence in the east of Europe, could afford to be forceful and confident of getting what he wanted. All Truman would say at Potsdam was that America had a weapon of awesome power – but that meant little to a leader who had millions of soldiers stationed in eastern Europe.

The issues discussed were:

1) Allied control of defeated Germany

2) Reparations

3) The Oder/Neisse Line

4) Russia joining the war in the Far East.