Potsdam Conference

British prime minister Winston Churchill (left) is pictured here at the beginning of the Potsdam Conference in Berlin, Germany, on 23 July 1945, with US president Harry S Truman (centre) and the Soviet leader Josef Stalin (right). Three days later, Clement Attlee became prime minister and took Churchill's place at the conference.

Conference held in Potsdam, Germany, 17 July-2 August 1945, between representatives of the USA, the UK, and the USSR. They established the political and economic principles governing the treatment of Germany in the initial period of Allied control at the end of World War II, and sent an ultimatum to Japan demanding unconditional surrender on pain of utter destruction.