The Potsdam conference

Twitter drama but it was grown men in the 1940's

Who were the big 3? (Britain, America and Russia)

Clement Atlee

Harry S. Truman

Josef Stalin

Why did Stalin and Truman clash personality-wise?

Truman was a dedicated hawk who was very anti-appeasement- he said he was “tired of babying the soviets” and so this hard-headed attitude set him up for conflict with Stalin.

Why did Stalin and Truman clash over armaments.

Although Stalin had spies in the US, he had not been officially told about the Manhattan project until Truman used the threat of nuclear destruction to try and intimidate him at the conference.

Why did Truman and Stalin clash over ideology (bar the obvious capitalist communist rivalry)?

Stalin was being very imperialist in eastern Europe creating the soviet sphere of influence promised to him at yalta IF he did it democratically (he was not). Consequently, Truman’s policy of containment immediately clashed with this.