Analysis: Potsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement emerged from the Potsdam Conference held in July 1945, shortly after Germany's surrender in World War II. Key figures at the conference included U.S. President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The main focus was on establishing a framework for postwar Germany, including the dismantling of the Nazi regime and military to prevent future militarization. The agreement also aimed to address the resettlement of millions of displaced individuals and the redrawing of national borders in Europe after the extensive territorial changes caused by the war.
The Potsdam Agreement divided Germany into four occupation zones, each overseen by one of the Allied powers. It outlined plans for capturing and trying German war criminals, as well as regulating Germany's economy to focus on nonmilitary industries. Additionally, the agreement sought to establish a provisional government for Poland and adjust its borders in response to territorial losses. Furthermore, it issued a warning to Japan, demanding its unconditional surrender and laying the groundwork for future peace negotiations. The Potsdam Agreement was instrumental in shaping the postwar order in Europe and addressing the complex political landscape left in the wake of the conflict.
Analysis: Potsdam Agreement
Date: August 1, 1945
Authors: Governments of the United States, Soviet Union, China, and United Kingdom
Genre: government document
Summary Overview
Shortly after Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 8, 1945, US president Harry S. Truman, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin met at the Potsdam Conference to complete an agreement on the treatment of postwar Germany. The leaders agreed to completely dismantle the Nazi Party (the National Socialist Party) and Germany's military in order to prevent that country's potential for remilitarization. Furthermore, the Potsdam participants established an agreement, in principle, for the division of Germany and the reestablishment of previously conquered European, Middle Eastern, and North African nations, as well as a plan of action for dealing with Japan once it was defeated.
Defining Moment
By the spring of 1945, fighting in the European theater (which included portions of North Africa and the Middle East) came to an end with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Approximately thirty-nine million soldiers and civilians died in this theater alone, while fighting, destruction, and casualties continued in the Pacific theater. The conflict left the entire region in a state of near chaos. Toppled governments left leadership vacuums, and long-standing borders had been erased. National economies had collapsed. Millions of displaced civilians, escaping the battlefield as well as Nazi persecution, sought new places in which to reside when hostilities came to an end.
Having gained an advantage against the Axis in Europe by early 1945, the “Big Three”—US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill—had met in February at the Crimean resort town of Yalta to discuss how to rebuild after the war and how to treat the vanquished enemy. To be sure, war continued in Japan, but the three leaders anticipated that that war would soon come to a close now that the Allies were gaining momentum. On May 7, with Adolf Hitler dead and his Nazi regime disintegrated, German officials signed the instrument of surrender at Reims in northwestern France, and the terms of the surrender came into effect on the following day. The groundwork laid at the Yalta Conference now required rapid and comprehensive development.
At this point, however, the complexion of the Big Three had changed as well as the political conditions in which they met. In March, Soviet troops finally expelled German forces from Poland, leaving the Soviet Union with a sizable spoil before the war was officially over. On April 12, Roosevelt suffered stroke and died, and his vice president, Harry S. Truman, assumed the presidency. Meanwhile, Churchill, who was an integral leader in the wartime coalition, had been replaced in the 1945 election by Labour Party leader Clement Attlee. Finally, Truman was preparing to end the war in the Pacific theater by dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan.
When Truman, Attlee, Churchill (who attended the conference for a week before being replaced by Attlee), and Stalin convened at Potsdam, theirs was a monumental and highly complex task. The principal item on their agenda was a discussion of how to treat the defeated Germans, including the complete dismantlement of the Nazi regime and military in such a way that prevented future incarnations of Nazi-style nationalism. Also pressing was the resettlement of millions of refugees, who had scattered across the globe in search of refuge from war and persecution. Furthermore, after the Axis forces invaded and annexed sovereign nations, there remained a question of how to redraw the borders of Europe's nations.
Document Analysis
After Germany formally surrendered in May 1945, President Truman, Premier Stalin, and Prime Ministers Churchill and Attlee were able to build on the groundwork that had been laid at Yalta when they convened at the Potsdam Conference in July. The main areas of focus of the Potsdam Agreement are the establishment of a council that would resolve latent territorial and security issues from the war, addressing postwar Germany and redrawing national borders (including establishing areas of influence) that had been erased during the war.
The first focal point the Potsdam Agreement addresses is the establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers. This council is to be comprised of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, as well as China and France (neither of which were represented at Potsdam and, therefore, required an invitation to join). This organization is to meet periodically to address unresolved territorial disputes and formalize treaties with Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Finland. The council will also serve as the successor to the European Advisory Commission, which had already divided Germany into zones occupied by the Allies; the Potsdam Agreement concludes that the European Advisory Commission is to be summarily dissolved. The agreement also addresses territories gained or liberated by the Allies during the war, including Soviet-acquired territories extending westward to (and including) the easternmost German city of Königsberg in the Baltic region.
One of the most pressing issues facing the Potsdam Conference was the question of Germany. The Potsdam Agreement supports the Agreement on Control of Machinery in Germany, which had been signed at the European Advisory Commission in July 1945, and divides Germany into four separate zones of occupation, overseen by United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France. The agreement states that Germany's military, economic, and political infrastructures be either fully dismantled or redirected in such a way that they prevented any future resurgence of Nazi groups or other nationalistic, militaristic trends in that country. The document lays plans for Germany's military (including the navy and merchant marine, in particular) to be completely dissolved, with weaponry destroyed, and for the Nazi Party to be fully abolished, with its members purged from government and replaced with democratically-elected leaders. Furthermore, the agreement calls for German war criminals to be captured and placed on trial for their actions. On the economic side, the Potsdam Agreement outlines plans for Germany's main industries to be strictly regulated, with an emphasis placed on traditional, nonviolent areas such as agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Finally, the agreement establishes a system by which German reparations should be paid to the Allies.
In addition to the aforementioned issues surrounding Germany and territories gained by the Allies, the Potsdam Agreement addresses the establishment of a Polish provisional government as well as the extension of Poland's borders to the Oder and Neisse Rivers, known as the Oder-Neisse line. The Potsdam Agreement attempts to compensate for Polish territorial losses in the east to the Soviet Union, which had been agreed upon at the Yalta Conference, by extending the Polish borders westward into Germany. Poland had been invaded in September 1939 by Germany from the west and the Soviet Union from the east and remained a major postwar issue in terms of rebuilding that nation's government. Questions also remained about Soviet-occupied territory and resettling the millions of Poles who had either fled or were deported from their homeland after these invasions. The Potsdam Agreement asserts that Poles returning to their home country “shall be accorded personal and property rights on the same basis as all Polish citizens.”
The agreement also establishes rules for the conduct of the occupying powers. Those forces that destroyed property or natural resources, as well as those who took “war trophies,” while serving in occupied territories would be expected to account for and compensate the governments of those territories. Similarly, any war trophies regained by the Allies from defeated Axis forces should be returned.
Finally, the Allies used Potsdam as a platform to offer Japan terms for its unconditional surrender. The European victory, the leaders said, should send a message to the Japanese emperor that his own country's defeat was imminent. The Potsdam Agreement calls upon Japan to immediately disarm and return any illegally conquered lands. Such a step would be toward international peace, the leaders advised; refusal to agree to the Allied terms of surrender, on the other hand, would result in Japan's “prompt and utter destruction.”
Glossary
potash: potassium carbonate
tripartite: divided into or consisting of three parts
Bibliography and Additional Reading
Dobbs, Michael. Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman—From World War to Cold War. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.
Piotrowski, Tadeusz, ed. The Polish Deportees of World War II: Recollections of Removal to the Soviet Union and Dispersal throughout the World. Jefferson: McFarland, 2004. Print.
Plokhy, S. M. Yalta: The Price of Peace. New York: Viking, 2010. Print.
“The Potsdam Conference, 1945.” Office of the Historian. United States Dept. of State, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2014.