The Potsdam Conference: July 25th 1945 – Churchill Departs

July 24th through July 26th were arguably the most crucial and deciding days of the Potsdam Conference.

Yesterday’s plenary session proved to be the most dramatic one yet with Stalin being more difficult than ever before on the topic of Italy and the former Axis states in Eastern Europe. He accused Churchill that he had been the victim of “fairy tales” when the Prime Minister had pointed out that the British diplomatic mission had experienced an “iron fence” in Bucharest. And then there was the gripping spectacle of Truman walking around the conference table after the plenary session adjourned to disclose the secret of the atomic bomb to Stalin, ushering in the nuclear arms race of the 20th century.

Over the years, it has been the thesis of some historians that the birth of the atomic bomb played a crucial role at Potsdam and influenced the way Truman behaved toward Stalin and the Soviets. Prior to telling Stalin about the bomb, many have argued that Truman played it like a game of poker where he had drawn two aces – one down and one up.

The ace down was the atomic bomb and the ace showing was the United States’s military and economic power.

Therefore, Truman was able to put added pressure on the Soviets that he otherwise would not have done had the bomb not been developed yet. However, aside from Truman appearing “tremendously pepped up” following Grove’s full description of the atomic bomb’s test on July 16th and then being more assertive at the fifth plenary session on July 21st, Truman neither said nor did anything of consequence to support this theory. Furthermore, the whole idea that the atomic bomb crucially added influence to how Truman saw his relationship with Stalin would be vigorously denied by those who were present and witness to the events at Potsdam.