Potsdam Conference

Successes:

• Truman was a lot harsher with the USSR than Roosevelt, Molotov claimed he had “never been spoken to like that” during the Truman-Molotov meeting. Truman said he was “tired of babying the soviets” and continuously giving them what they wanted. This led to a “major shift in American attitudes towards the Russians” , says Yergin in his book "Shattered peace”. This reassured the American public who feared a renewal of a policy of appeasement and showed that America should be taken seriously by the USSR.

•  One of Truman’s advisor wrote “he [Truman] stood up to the Russians in a most emphatic and decisive manner”

Failures:

• The US no longer wanted the help of the USSR in Japan as they had developed the atomic bomb and therefore told the USSR they no longer needed their help. This angered Stalin as the US had promised them control of the Manchurian railway if they helped the US defeat Japan.

• USSR had taken over Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Hungary - and installed communist governments. Truman accepted this Soviet domination of eastern Europe.

• There was no real government in Germany, so the Allied Council Control (ACC) was established. It consisted of 4 military commanders from each of the 4 occupying powers. However, Stalin insisted that each commander can only control their own zone. Therefore the ACC had no real power in Germany. Although Truman made an effort to maintain peaceful relations with the USSR and prevent Germany from collapsing, this had no real effect and was generally a failure.