In the statement of the Potsdam conference on Germany, it is stated: “The intention of the Allies is to enable the German people to prepare for a possible reconstruction of their lives on a democratic and peaceful basis.” The four areas of occupation of Germany, designed at the Yalta conference, were created, each to be managed by the commander-in-chief of the Soviet, British, American or French occupation army. Berlin, Vienna and Austria were also divided into four zones of occupation. An allied supervisory board, made up of representatives of the four allies, should deal with issues relating to Germany and Austria as a whole. Their policy was dictated by the “five Ds” decided in Yalta: demilitarization, denatalization, democratization, decentralization and deindustrialization. Each Allied power had to seize repairs to its own areas of occupation, while the Soviet Union was allowed 10 to 15 percent of industrial equipment in western Germany in exchange for agricultural and other natural products in its area. The main objective of the Potsdam conference was to put an end to the post-war period and to put into practice all that had been agreed in Yalta. While the Yalta meeting was rather friendly, the Potsdam conference was marked by differences of opinion that were the result of some important changes since the Yalta conference. The Potsdam conference took place in Potsdam from 17 July to 2 August 1945. (In some older documents, it is also called the Berlin Conference of the three heads of government of the USSR, the United States and the United Kingdom. [2] [3] Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, represented by Prime Minister Joseph Stalin, Prime Minister Winston Churchill[4] and Clement Attlee[5] and President Harry S. Truman.
They met to decide how to manage Germany, which nine weeks earlier, on 8 May (Victory Day in Europe), had declared itself ready to surrender unconditionally. Among the objectives of the conference were the establishment of the post-war order, the issues of the peace treaty and the fight against the effects of war. Truman was much more suspicious of the Soviets than Roosevelt and increasingly suspicious of Stalin`s intentions. [11] Truman and his advisers regarded Soviet action in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism, incompatible with the agreements Stalin had been obliged to in Yalta in February. In addition, Truman discovered possible complications elsewhere when Stalin rejected Stalin Churchill`s proposal to withdraw the Allies from Iran before the timetable agreed at the Tehran conference. The Potsdam conference was the only time Truman met Stalin himself. [13] [14] The three governments have taken note of the talks that have taken place in recent weeks in London between representatives of the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and France to reach agreement on the methods of trial of major war criminals whose crimes do not present a particular geographical location after the Moscow Declaration of October 1943.
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