The Potsdam Conference: July 29th 1945 – Stalin Takes Ill

Just five days after President Truman left Norfolk, Virginia on the USS Augusta to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, he wrote a letter to his wife moaning about how he was dreading his trip to Potsdam and claiming that it was “worse than anything” he had ever had to face.

For a captain in the United States 129th Field Artillery – who commanded and led just over 190 men into battle during World War I – to say that a “restful and satisfactory trip” (words he used in the same letter to describe his first few days at sea) to Germany to attend a summit, live in a huge villa, and negotiate peace talks in the former Crown Prince of Prussia’s palace were going to be the worst thing that he had ever had to face, demonstrated a lot about his attitude toward this trip before it had even begun.

Indeed, the President was certainly being sarcastic in his tone, but it revealed early on that his heart was not in the right place when it came to attending this conference from the beginning. Seventeen days had now passed since he sent that first letter – and the Potsdam Conference was now twelve days old – and nothing of significance had really been accomplished.

Therefore, today was supposed to be an important day at Potsdam. With the American delegation itching to head home and given the fact that the progress on the two most contentious issues of the conference – borders and reparations – were at a complete standstill, some leeway was hoped to be made when it had been agreed that Truman and Byrnes would meet with Stalin and Molotov off the record at the ‘Little White House’. Truman would write to his wife early this morning:

“Stalin and Molotov are coming to see me this morning and I am going to straighten it out.”