Editing Potsdam Conference (section)

== Preparation ==
In May 1945, Churchill wrote to Truman hoping to arrange a meeting of the three governments to occur in June. Truman hoped for Stalin to propose the meeting so as to avoid the appearance that the Americans and British were ganging up on the Soviets. With some prompting from Truman's aide [[Harry Hopkins]], Stalin proposed a meeting in the Berlin area. Informed of this by the US, Churchill sent a letter agreeing that he'd be happy to meet in "what is left of Berlin".<ref>{{Cite web |last=McDonough |first=Jim |date=2021-05-13 |title=The Potsdam Conference 1945: A Day-By-Day Account |url=https://www.berlinexperiences.com/the-potsdam-conference-1945/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=Berlin Experiences |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Correspondence between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidents of the USA and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/correspondence/01/45.htm |access-date=2023-01-02 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

Some sources suggest Truman delayed the conference in order for it to meet after the results of the first atomic bomb test were known.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 1995 |title=Document Resume – The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED401218.pdf |access-date=6 March 2023 |website=[[Education Resources Information Center]] |publisher=The Smithsonian Institution}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Truman |first=Harry S. |date=July–August 1980 |editor-last=Bernstein |editor-first=Barton J. |title=Truman at Potsdam: His Secret Diary |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/38.pdf |journal=[[Foreign Service Journal]] |access-date=6 March 2023 |via=[[National Security Archive]]}}</ref> The conference was eventually set to begin July 16 at [[Cecilienhof]] in Potsdam, near Berlin.[[File:Cecilienhof in Potsdam.jpg|thumb|[[Cecilienhof]], site of the Potsdam Conference, pictured in 2014|none]]