President Harry Truman. Truman meets Stalin, July 17, 1945

On this day in 1945, President Harry S. Truman, who had been in office since April 12, met for the first time with Soviet leader Josef Stalin. They conferred — two months after the defeat of Nazi Germany — at the Potsdam Conference, held outside Berlin, which had been convened by the victorious Allies to frame their post-World War II policies in Europe.

Truman described his initial session with Stalin as cordial. “Promptly a few minutes before 12,” the president wrote, “I looked up from the desk and there stood Stalin in the doorway. I got to my feet and advanced to meet him. He put out his hand and smiled. I did the same, we shook ... and we sat down.”


The president told Stalin that his own diplomatic style was straightforward and to the point, an admission, Truman observed in his diary, that he thought had visibly pleased Stalin. Truman hoped to get the Soviets to join in the American-led war against Japan. In return, Stalin wanted to reimpose Soviet control over territories annexed at the beginning of the war by Japan.

Although Truman confided in his diary that Stalin’s agenda was “dynamite,” the president felt that the United States possessed the resources to counter whatever aggressive plans the communist chieftain might have in mind.

Truman refrained from informing Stalin about the Manhattan Project, which had recently successfully tested the world’s first atomic bomb. He referred to this ultra-secret weapon as “some dynamite which I am not exploding now.” (Truman told Stalin of the bomb about a week later; unbeknownst to the president, Soviet spies had already not only briefed Moscow but had also stolen vital bomb-making documents.)

After their initial meeting, according to the presidential diary, Truman, Stalin and their accompanying advisers “had lunch, talked socially [and] put on a real show, drinking toasts to everyone” while posing for photographs. Truman closed his entry for the day on a confident note. “I can deal with Stalin,” he wrote. “He is honest but smart as hell.”

Nonetheless, the relationship between Washington and Moscow soon fell apart. An exasperated Truman told his advisers: “The Russians only understand one language — how many armies have you got? I'm tired of babying the Soviets.”

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM; “MEETING AT POTSDAM,” BY CHARLES L. MEE JR. (1975)