Commentary:

At the Potsdam Conference, which opened on July 17 and ended in the early morning hours of August 2, the president found himself occupied with so many concerns that he must have shaken his head months and years later when he looked back in his mind's eye upon them. The meetings were for Truman the first occasions to be with both Churchill and Stalin. He met with them in the grand hall of the Cecilienhof, the palace of the last crown prince of the German empire, which came to its abject end in 1918.

The palace, which had not been damaged by bombing, was a vast rabbit warren of rooms and hallways; its grounds were put in order by Russian soldiery who saw to it that at the palace's entrance lay a huge floral display of cannas set in the form of a red star. Guards, of course, were everywhere; Soviet soldiers were under the immediate command of Russian intelligence officials. And in various large houses in the vicinity - Truman's "Berlin White House" was in the suburb of Babelsberg - the principals and their delegations were housed.

The peaceful enclave of the Cecilienhof and its surroundings was strangely at odds with the vast, broken city, the erstwhile German capital, just a few miles away.

Truman's diary of three crucial days at Potsdam is, in retrospect, fascinating.

Diary entries:

Just spent a couple of hours with Stalin. Joe Davies called on Maisky and made the date last night for noon today. (1) Promptly a few minutes before twelve 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, I greeted Molotov and the interpreter, and we sat down. (2)

After the usual polite remarks we got down to business. I told Stalin that I am no diplomat but usually said yes and no to questions after hearing all the argument. It pleased him. I asked him if he had the agenda for the meeting. He said he had and that he had some more questions to present. I told him to fire away. He did and it is dynamite - but I have some dynamite too which I am not exploding now. He wants to fire Franco, to which I wouldn't object, and divide up the Italian colonies and other mandates, some no doubt that the British have. (3) Then he got on the Chinese situation, told us what agreements had been reached and what was in abeyance. Most of the big points are settled. He'll be in the Jap war on August 15. Fini Japs when that comes about.

We had lunch, talked socially, put on a real show, drinking toasts to everyone. Then had pictures made in the back yard.

I can deal with Stalin. He is honest, but smart as hell.

Ate breakfast with nephew Harry, a sergeant in the field artillery. He is a good soldier and a nice boy. They took him off Queen Elizabeth at Glasgow and flew him here. Sending him home Friday.(4 ) Went to lunch with F.M. at 1:30, walked around to British headquarters. Met at the gate by Mr. Churchill. Guard of honor drawn up. Fine body of men - Scottish Guards. Band played "Star Spangled Banner." Inspected guard and went in for lunch. P.M. and I ate alone. Discussed Manhattan (it is a success). Decided to tell Stalin about it. Stalin had told F.M. of telegram from Jap emperor asking for peace.(5) Stalin also read his answer to me. It was satisfactory. Believe Japs will fold up before Russia comes in. I am sure they will when Manhattan appears over their homeland. I shall inform Stalin about it at an opportune time.

Stalin's luncheon was a most satisfactory meeting. I invited him to come to the U.S. Told him I'd send the battleship Missouri for him if he'd come. He said he wanted to cooperate with U.S. in peace as we had cooperated in war, but it would be harder. Said he was grossly misunderstood in U.S. and I was misunderstood in Russia. I told him that we each could help to remedy that situation in our home countries and that I intended to try with all I had to do my part at home. He gave me a most cordial smile and said he would do as much in Russia.(6)

We then went to the conference and it was my job to present the ministers' proposed agenda.(7 ) There were three proposals and I banged them through in short order, much to the surprise of Mr. Churchill. Stalin was very much pleased. Churchill was too, after he had recovered. I'm not going to stay around this terrible place all summer just to listen to speeches. I'll go home to the Senate for that.

We met at 11:00 a.m. today. That is, Stalin, Churchill, and the U.S. president. But I had a most important session with Lord Mountbatten and General Marshall before that. We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley era, after Noah and his fabulous ark. Anyway we think we have found the way to cause a disintegration of the atom. An experiment in the New Mexican desert was startling - to put it mildly. Thirteen pounds of the explosive caused the complete disintegration of a steel tower sixty feet high, created a crater six feet deep and twelve hundred feet in diameter, knocked over a steel tower a half mile away, and knocked men down ten thousand yards away. The explosion was visible for more than two hundred miles and audible for forty miles and more.

This weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10. I have told the secretary of war, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.(8) He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful.

View the official handwritten diary entries:

1. July 17: Pages 1
2. July 18: Pages 1, 2
3. July 25: Pages 1, 2

Sources: Diary, July 17, box 333, president's secretary's files; diary, July 18, 25, "Ross, Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. (handwritten)," box 322, president's secretary's files.

On July 24, after the end of a session at the Cecillenhof, Truman walked carefully around to Stalin, who had stood up and was preparing to leave the hall and told about the test explosion of a nuclear bomb. Truman did not use the word "nuclear" and simply related that the United States had just successfully tested a new weapon of great explosive power and that he wanted the Soviets to know this fact. Stalin did not appear very impressed and, indeed, gave Truman the feeling that he had not quite understood the purpose of the revelation. But indeed he had, for when he got back to his quarters, Molotov was heard to say to Stalin, "We 'II have to talk it over with Kurchatov and get him to speed things up" (Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov). Professor Igor Kurchatov was in charge of the Russian nuclear program, which, after a lapse because of the removal of laboratories from Moscow during the war, had quickly resumed. At Potsdam the President obviously did not know that Russian spies had penetrated the bomb project and that Stalin would have the bomb "secret" within weeks of Alamogordo. Actually the first Russian bomb, which was tested August 1949, was a copy of the American plutonium bomb. Truman proudly annotated the photograph of adjournment of the July 24 session, "This is the place I told Stalin about the Atom Bomb, which was exploded July 6, 1945 in New Mexico. He didn't realize what I was talking about.

NOTES

2. Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet foreign minister.

3. Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator.

4. This Harry Truman was the son of the president's brother, John Vivian Truman.

5. The cable "asking for peace" was not that but an inquiry asking permission to send a personal representative, a former Japanese premier, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, who would negotiate presumably to keep the Soviet Union from entering the war against Japan or perhaps to seek the USSR's good offices in negotiating with the United States. The cable was not news to President Truman, who because of the interception by American intelligence of Japan's diplomatic radio traffic and its translation (an operation known as Magic), already knew about it. Stalin's relation of the cable doubtless was a relief to the president who thereby knew that the Soviet leader was not withholding information from him.

6. An interesting confession by Stalin, who controlled the Soviet press.

7. By "ministers," Truman meant Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, and Foreign Minister Molotov.

8. The new capital was Tokyo; the old was Kyoto.