Potsdam

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• 17th July - 2nd August, 1945

• Followed Germany's defeat but prior to Japan's surrender

• Big Three met at the Cecilienhof Palace, in Potsdam

• Follow-up to Yalta, and intended to decide Germany's fate in more detail

• With the European war over, cracks in the alliance began to appear

• These differences were mainly due to with Stalin's anxiety that the USSR needed a generous reparations settlement to help rebuild its shattered economy

• Stalin worried that the US and UK would block his request for compensation

• Composition had changed - Franklin D. Roosevelt died on 12th April and replaced by Harry S. Truman, Churchill had been elected out and replaced by Clement Attlee on 26th July, while Stalin remained a dictator

• Allies did agree to the occupation of Germany in four zones (given to the US, British, French, and Russian respectively), to be overseen by an Allied Control Commission.

• Also agreed that Germany should be demilitarised, democratised and denazified, and that war criminals should be arrested and tried.

• Final ultimatum was also issued to Japan, but not by Russia, who had not gone to war with Japan yet

• Truman told Stalin that the US had successfully detonated an atomic bomb. Stalin, however already knew about it due to his intelligence services