9781422285954

Origins of the Cold War

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common enemy during World War II. Might practical considerations also lead them to seek some accommodation in the postwar period? On July 17, 1945, the Potsdam Conference opened. It brought together, once again, the leaders of the Allied nations. Harry S. Truman now rep- resented the United States, having become president upon Roosevelt’s death on April 12. The agenda at Potsdam focused largely on what to do with defeated Germany. The Germans had surrendered more than two months earlier. But World War II wasn’t quite over, as the Allies hadn’t yet obtained Japan’s surrender. At Potsdam, President Trumanmet Joseph Stalin. His impressions of the Soviet leader were positive. “He is straightforward,” Trumanwrote. “Knows what he wants and will compromise when he can’t get it.” Truman understood that dealing with the Soviet Union wouldn’t be easy. In the end, though, he believed the USSR would go along with American Clement Atlee of Great Britain, Harry Truman of the United States, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union meet at Potsdam, Germany, in July 1945. During the Potsdam Conference, Truman told Stalin that the United States had developed a “powerful new weapon”—atomic bombs, which would soon be dropped on Japan.