At the end of the Second World War, the world hoped to see a smooth and easy process of negotiations and territory claims. In Yalta, the Big Three - the US, Britain, and Soviet Russia - discussed how postwar Eastern Europe would look. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin spent the days talking about dividing Germany, creating a new government in Poland, and generally bringing democracy to Eastern Europe. The Yalta Conference took place in February of 1945, resulting in promises that were meant to be implemented after the war was over. No one knew what was to come, but their spirits were high. But in April of that same year, only two months after Yalta, President Roosevelt passed away. The problem was, there was still a conference with the Allied countries.
After defeating the Germans, the Big Three met for a final conference in Potsdam to make sure that the promises made in Yalta would indeed be carried out. At the end of a war, in the midst of negotiations, and most importantly, just 4 days after the next conference at Potsdam would end, Harry Truman would take over and use an atomic bomb on Japan. To make matters worse, the British held elections on July 5, 1945. To the surprise of the Allies and much of the world, British Labour Party leader Clement Attlee defeated Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
While Churchill attended some of the Potsdam Conference, he was out of office before it ended. Newly elected Prime Minister Attlee took over and continued the discussions with Stalin and Truman about the plan for Eastern Europe. This was the moment that the relationship between the Big Three spiraled downward. Stalin was not familiar with Attlee, nor did he have much time to understand Truman, which put him in an uncomfortable situation. Truman was suspicious of the Communists, Stalin was suspicious of the democracies, and there was generally an uneasy feeling between the group members.
Stalin was left alone to do what he wished, since the two new leaders were unable to continue Roosevelt and Churchill's past plans and were still new to the leadership table. This left Stalin to decide most of the postwar outcomes in Europe and some territory claims, but most of the plans from Yalta went through.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Conference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge45.shtml
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/potsdam-conference
I really liked this post on "the lone wolf" and thought that it was very insightful. I did some further research and found that although many plans went through, many were not fulfilled. For example, in Poland, Stalin promised free elections in return for western friendliness. Neither of these promises went through, however. Free elections were not instituted in Poland and the US and Soviet Union were not friendly to each other at all, which is evident by the early Cold War. Some promises were upheld, though, such as the Soviet entrance to the Pacific theater of World War II. Nevertheless, the disagreements and suspicions of the US and the USSR continued increasing tensions after Yalta.
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