Potsdam Conference

Potsdam Conference (July 17 to Aug. 2, 1945), a summit meeting at Potsdam, Germany, between Premier Joseph Stalin, President Harry S. Truman, and in succession, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Winston Attlee. They agreed that a four-power Allied Control Council would rule defeated Germany, disarming it and fostering democratic government; Poland would gain part of East Germany; the German economy would be decentralized; Germans in Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia would be repatriated. The conference also discussed reparations payments and issued an ultimatum to Japan. Almost all the agreements were breached as the Cold War hardened.

See also: World War II.