The Potsdam Conference: July 18th 1945 – Dividing The Spoils

An avid early riser his whole life, President Truman sat down at his desk early in the morning on the bank of his lakeside house on lake Griebnitzsee and composed a letter to his beloved wife, Bess.

The first session was yesterday. It had made presiding over the Senate seem tame. The boys say I gave them an earful. I hope so…I was so scared. I didn’t know whether things were going according to Hoyle (protocol) or not. Anyway, a start has been made and I’ve gotten what I came for – Stalin goes to war August 15 with no strings on it…I’ll say that we’ll end the war a year sooner now, and think of the kids who won’t be killed! That is the important thing…Wish you and Margie were here. But it is a forlorn place and would only make you sad.”

This was a big deal for President Truman and for the reputation of American foreign policy with a new leader at the helm. On the previous afternoon, he had sat down at a table with two of the most colossal figures of the 20th century – “Mr. Great Britain and Mr. Russia” as he referred to Churchill and Stalin, respectively – to begin putting together an official agenda that would determine the fate of the postwar world. It was his first formal meeting outside of Washington and his first official interaction with world leaders abroad. He appeared to be anything but “scared”, as he believed he had been. On the contrary, Truman was cool, composed, “businesslike”, as Anthony Eden described, and demonstrated radiant authority.

Since all three delegations and the ‘Big Three’ were essentially staying in the same neighborhood at Babelsberg – and given the fact that most of the plenary sessions were not called to order until late in the afternoon – off-the-record meetings, conversations, and lunches were a common component of the Potsdam Conference.