No. 3 Harry Truman - Potsdam
Date: July 16-August 2, 1945 Harry Truman may have been relatively fresh in the presidency when he set off for Berlin for the Potsdam Conference, but the President had what the more seasoned players did not: an atomic bomb. Convened to decide the fate of postwar Europe, The Potsdam Conference got off with a bang. Literally. The day before, on July 16, 1945 in the desert of New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was detonated. The blast gave a fillip to President Truman, as he envisioned the new weapon would give the U.S. greater clout as the victorious powers hammered out the contours of a post-war order. In a quiet moment, Truman told Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin about a U.S. weapon of “unusual destructive force.” Stalin was disinterested, hoping only that it be used to bring the war with Japan to a prompt end. Truman did not know it, but Stalin had learned of the secret weapon from Soviet spies deep in the U.S. government. Among the momentous outcomes of Truman's trip (the last time the three victors of World War II would meet) was the division of Germany into four occupation zones, German de-industrialization, the movement of populations from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy; and the recognition of the Soviet-influenced Provisional Government of National Unity in Poland. The terms for Japanese surrender were also issued at Potsdam.
