Potsdam Conference
(July 17 – Aug. 2, 1945) Allied conference held in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam after Germany's surrender in
World War II.
Harry Truman,
Joseph Stalin, and
Winston Churchill (later replaced by
Clement R. Attlee) met to discuss European peace settlements, the administration of defeated Germany, the demarcation of the boundaries of Poland, the occupation of Austria, the definition of the Soviet Union's role in eastern Europe, the determination of reparations, and the further prosecution of the war against Japan. The four occupation zones of Germany conceived at the
Yalta Conference were set up, each to be administered by the commander-in-chief of the Soviet, British, U.S., or French army of occupation. Poland's boundary became the Oder and Neisse rivers in the west, and the country received part of former East Prussia. Stalin refused to let the Western powers interfere with his control of eastern Europe.
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