CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT:
Cold War Relations 1941-1965
The BIG Question:
What caused the Cold War?
Yalta and Potsdam:
Truman and Hiroshima
Lesson III – Yalta and Potsdam: Truman and Hiroshima
• Judge Truman’s position at Potsdam
• Evaluate the utility of contemporary written sources
Can American President Truman
have ever been justified to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
SOURCE J
We argued freely and frankly across the table. But at the end of every point
unanimous agreement was reached ... We know, of course, that it was Hitler’s
hope and the German war lords’ hope that we would not agree – that some
slight crack might appear in this solid wall of allied unity ... But Hitler has failed.
Never before have the major allies been more closely united – not only in their
war aims but also in the peace aims.
Extract from President Roosevelt’s report to the USA on the Yalta Conference
HOW USEFUL ARE THESE TWO SOURCES TO YOU AS A HISTORIAN? REMEMBER TO
QUOTE FROM THEM AND REFER TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE KEY EYE WITNESSES
SOURCE K
I have always worked for friendship with Russia, but like you, I feel deep anxiety
because of this misinterpretation of the Yalta decisions.
Extract from a telegram sent by Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt
in May 1945
5
Lesson III – Yalta and Potsdam: Truman and Hiroshima
• Judge Truman’s position at Potsdam
• Evaluate the utility of contemporary written sources
Can American President Truman
havehave
everever
beenbeen
justified
justified
to THREATEN
to drop thethe
Atomic
Atomic
Bomb
Bomb
onon
Japan?
RUSSIA?