The minutes of the Potsdam Conference suggested lasting harmony between the Allies, but the profoundly contradictory goals of the Western democracies, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union, on the other, actually meant that Potsdam was to be the last Summit Conference of the Allies. The Conference agreed on the establishment of a Council of Foreign Ministers representing the five main Powers in order to continue the essential preparatory work for the peace agreements and to take charge of other matters which might occasionally be entrusted to the Council by agreement of the Governments participating in the Council. The creation of the Council in question does not contradict the agreement of the Crimean Conference that there should be regular meetings between the Foreign Ministers of the three governments. According to the text of the agreement establishing the Council, the following was decided[7]: Truman had called Stalin an unspecified „new powerful weapon“ during the conference. Towards the end of the conference, on July 26, the Potsdam Declaration gave Japan an ultimatum to surrender unconditionally or to face „immediate and total destruction,“ which did not mention the new bomb,[48] but promised that „it was not intended to enslave Japan.“ The Soviet Union was not involved in this statement, as it was still neutral in the war against Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki did not respond,[49] which was interpreted as a sign that the Japanese Empire had ignored the ultimatum. [50] As a result, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki on August 9. The justifications were that both cities were legitimate military targets and that it was necessary to end the war quickly and preserve the lives of Americans. The Soviet Union submitted to the Conference a proposal on mandated territories in accordance with what was decided at the von Yalta Conference and the Charter of the United Nations. Truman was much more suspicious of the Soviets than Roosevelt and was increasingly suspicious of Stalin`s intentions. [11] Truman and his advisers saw Soviet action in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism incompatible with the agreements to which Stalin had committed himself in Kanta in February. Moreover, Truman became aware of possible complications elsewhere when Stalin rejected Churchill`s proposal for an allied withdrawal from Iran earlier than expected at the Tehran conference. The Potsdam Conference was the only time Truman met Stalin in person.
[13] [14] France, which had been excluded from the conference, opposed the implementation of the Potsdam Agreements in its area of occupation. In particular, the Frenchman refused to resettle the Germans expelled from the East. Moreover, the French did not accept any obligation to abdicate the Potsdam Accords into the system of the Allied Control Council; in particular, they reserved the right to block proposals to establish common policies and institutions throughout Germany and anything that could lead to the emergence of a unified German government. [33] At the von Yalta Conference, France was granted an occupation zone within Germany. France participated in the Berlin Declaration and was to become an equal member of the Allied Control Council […].