FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met in early 1945; by the summer of 1945, two of those leaders had changed. Click each image to meet the three men who came together for the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 to set out terms for the post-war world.

In August 1945, the war was almost over: Germany had surrendered, but Japan had not. The U.S. was fighting the war in the Pacific almost on its own and had contributed more men and materials to the war in Europe than Britain had. This made Truman feel that he had more authority to dictate post-war terms than Attlee or Stalin. Truman was willing to use force against the Soviet Union to keep it from dividing Europe into a free western half and an occupied eastern half. Attlee supported Truman on this. The atmosphere at the Potsdam Conference was tense, and none of the three leaders was willing to keep up the pretense that they were true allies. The U.S. and Britain were on one side, and the Soviet Union was on the other. The conference would change from a meeting to discuss how best to establish democracy in Europe to a hostile negotiation over how the one-time allies would coexist on that continent.

Complete this activity to test your understanding of the changing relationship between the leaders who met at the Potsdam Conference.