What emotions did Truman have towards Stalin during the Potsdam Conference?

Answer 1

Probably frustration was the main emotion. (Entire books have been written about this meeting, which marked the beginning of decades of "cold war" between the nations represented.) Truman was pretty straightforward about his feelings and emotions. Truman did not disagree gracefully, and Potsdam was a situation where he and Stalin disagreed about so many things, yet he had to remain graceful and diplomatic. Frustration. There were other factors adding to his frustration: (1) Truman had only been President for 4 months, so a lot of what he was dealing with was new to him. (2) Winston Churchill, who arguably had been the defacto leader of the US-Britain military alliance, was voted out of his office in the middle of the Potsdam Conference. So Truman started with the clever and experienced Churchill at his side, but suddenly found himself at a loss with Churchill's replacement Clement Atlee. (3) WWII had virtually ended for everyone else, but Truman still had to deal with Japan; effectively defeated, the Japanese leaders still refused to surrender, threatening an extension of the war that had the potential to result in over a million deaths.