Yalta and Potsdam

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Yalta conference

Held in Yalta, Crimea during World War II

Attendees

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States
• Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain
• Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union

Reasons for meeting

• The Allies were confident that Germany would soon be defeated, but were uncertain about victory in the Pacific theater
• They wanted to ally with the USSR to defeat Japan
• The USSR wanted to gain a sphere of influence

Results

• Germany would be divided
• The USSR would enter the war against Japan
• Germany would have to pay the USSR reparations to compensate for their losses during the war
• The USSR would allow territories liberated from Nazi Germany to have free elections
• The USSR would receive a sphere of influence in Manchuria

The Potsdam Conference

Held in Potsdam, Germany after World War II

Attendees

• Harry S. Truman, President of the United States
• Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain
• Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union

Reasons for Meeting

• Discussing the treatment of post-war Germany
  • Land division (borders were predetermined as well as the division of the 4 zones)
  • How to obtain reparations for the war without repeating the post-Versailles world
• Discussion of demilitarization and disarmament
• Creation of the United Nations

Results

• Germany divided into 4 occupied zones
• “Potsdam Declaration”-- if Japan did not immediately surrender, it would be promptly and utterly destroyed
• Poland received a large swath of German territory
• War crime trials were to be held in Nuremberg (the Nuremberg trials)
• Germany was to pay reparations to the Allies
• Stalin went back on his word and said he wouldn’t allow free elections in newly formed eastern European countries

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