Zusammenfassung der Ressource
1945 summit conferences
- Yalta (February)
- divide Germany into four ‘zones’, which Britain, France,
the USA and the USSR would occupy after the war.
- bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.
- set up a Polish Provisional Government of National
Unity 'pledged to the holding of free and unfettered
elections as soon as possible'.
- set up a commission to look into reparations.
- help the freed peoples of Europe set up democratic and self-governing countries by helping
them to (a) maintain law and order; (b) carry out emergency relief measures; (c) set up
governments; and (d) hold elections (this was called the 'Declaration of Liberated Europe').
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- Russia would join the war in the Pacific, in return
for occupation zones in North Korea and
Manchuria.
- Potsdam (july)
- to set up the four ‘zones of occupation’ in Germany. The Nazi Party, government and laws were to be
destroyed, and 'German education shall be so controlled as completely to eliminate Nazi and militarist
doctrines and to make possible the successful development of democratic ideas.
- to bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.
- to recognize the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity and hold 'free and unfettered elections as
soon as possible'.
- Russia was allowed to take reparations from the Soviet Zone, and also 10% of the industrial equipment of the
western zones as reparations. America and Britain could take reparations from their zones if they wished.
- Relations between the superpowers had worsened considerably since Yalta, in May 1945, the British
Joint Planing Group had drawn up plans for 'Operation Unthinkable' - a 'total war ... to impose our will upon
Russia'.
- Meanwhile, Roosevelt had died, and America had a new president, Truman, who was inclined to ‘get tough’
with the Russians.
- Also, soon after he had arrived at the Conference, Truman learned (on 21 July) that America had tested the first atomic bomb. It
gave the Americans a huge military advantage over everyone else. It also meant that Truman didn't need Stalin's help in Japan.
Instead, Truman's main aim at the conference was to find out from Stalin what date the Russians intended to enter the war in the
Pacific - something which (unlike Roosevelt) he did NOT want.