The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism and violence, specifically wartime atrocities.

Truman was quickly made chairman of the Potsdam conference, leading him to suspect that Stalin would expect some sort of favor in return. Truman proved an effective leader, well-versed in the relevant issues and defusing a quarrel between Stalin and Churchill over what to do with captured German warships. Returning to his quarters, Truman thought deeply about the conflicts among the ostensible allies, as Britain dreaded the diminishment of its own position and the Soviet Union, having lost tens of millions during the war, “believed that this bloodletting entitled them to power and expansion” (298). Nothing less than the shape of the postwar world was at stake. The next morning, Truman had lunch with Churchill and told him about the successful atomic bomb test, which he joyfully welcomed as an alternative to invading Japan. Truman then visited with Stalin, who frankly admitted that “it was going to be harder for the Soviets to cooperate with the United States in peacetime, as they had during the war” (300). In the second plenary session, Truman was again firmly in control, while Churchill appeared distracted by the ongoing election and Stalin, in Truman’s opinion, “is as near like Tom Pendergast as any man I know” (302).