ABSTRACT
At the Potsdam conference Stalin figured, for the outside world, as the great conqueror. It was he who received Truman and Churchill in the ancient palace of the Crown Prince, which gave a twofold significance to his triumph — a victory at once over Hitlerian Germany and imperial Germany. A great deal was made in the Red camp of the instructions, real or imaginary, which the state department was supposed to have given to the American press, to start an anti-Russian propaganda. At Potsdam, before each meeting, Molotov gave him a note containing a summary of the decision taken on the previous day by the permanent committee, which had appointed a council of experts to study each problem as it arose. Toward the end of the conversations Truman repeated his attempt to come to an understanding with Stalin. The third conference between the big three and their successors marked the disagreement which was assume the form of the 'cold war'.
