The Potsdam Conference

1. Read Source 17 (p 68). At Yalta, Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed with Stalin that eastern Europe would be a Soviet ‘sphere of influence’. Do you think Source 17 is what they had in mind?   

It is not what Churchill and Roosevelt originally had in mind. The original agreement was that Stalin would be able to control parts of eastern Europe if he gives the people the freedom of being able to vote. In source 17 it says that Stalin would be controlling the eastern European countries with a communist rule because that is his social system and he can't help but also rule the countries his way. 




2. Would they agree with Stalin’s views expressed in Sources 17 and 18? Explain your answer.       

They would not agree with Stalin's views because Stalin is saying that because the Soviet Union borders with Poland he can represent Poland and have control over it, but Great Britain and the United States do not border Poland so they should not has so much say, which it says in source 18. Churchill and Roosevelt would not agree with this idea because they believed that because the United States and Great Britain fought in the war they should have a say in the government that is formed in Poland. 




3.  Explain how each of the three developments described in the text might affect relationships at Potsdam.
The three developments described in the text is that the Soviet Union controlled most of Eastern Europe, the USA had a new President, and the United States has just formed a successful atomic bomb. Stalin wanted to keep control over the countries he has control over in Eastern Europe because it is also part of the land which the Soviet Union lost after World War I, this affects the relationships during the Potsdam conference because Stalin wants to fight for the land, which Truman and Attlee do not want the Soviet Union to have so much control. Truman was the new President in the United States, and Truman was more of an anti-communist than Roosevelt meaning that he is a lot more harsher on Stalin which causes more disagreement. Lastly the United States just found out that the Trinity Test was a success, meaning that the United States no longer needed the Soviet Unions to help them win the Pacific War against Japan, which means that Truman can be a lot more harsh on the Soviet Union because they no longer need them for anything.