Lesson Plan
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Harry Truman & the Potsdam Conference: Student Activity

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity allows students to see President Truman's perspective at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Features include overview and firsthand accounts of conference, questions, vocabulary, and photos.
Graphic
US Navy

Naval Historical Center: The Potsdam Conference, July August 1945

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a brief summary with pictures of the Potsdam Conference.
Website
National Archives (UK)

Cold War: The Potsdam Conference

For Students 9th - 10th
An in-depth study of international relations at the time of the Potsdam Conference. Includes political cartoons, primary source documents, and teacher resources.
Primary
University of Virginia

Miller Center at Uva: Presidential Speeches: Radio Report to the American People on Postdam Conference

For Students 9th - 10th
Read the speech President Harry Truman gave to the American public upon his return from the Potsdam Conference in August, 1945, following the surrender of Germany.
Primary
ibiblio

Ibiblio: Truman's Report to the Nation on the Potsdam Conference

For Students 9th - 10th
This ibiblio.org site ontains the actual report issued by President Truman about the Potsdam Conference.
Article
Siteseen

Siteseen: American Historama: Potsdam Conference

For Students 9th - 10th
The Potsdam Conference was a wartime summit meeting whose purpose was to clarify and implement the terms for the end of WW2 that had been agreed at the Yalta Conference. It began on July 17, 1945, and ended on August 2, 1945.
Website
PBS

Pbs: Wwii Behind Closed Doors:the Conferences

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides a comprehensive overview of many conferences between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and the Allies' conferences with Stalin and others during World War II and includes links to related resources and media.
Website
Other

Lebendiges Museum Online: Potsdamer Konferenz

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the Lebendiges Museum Online describes the events surrounding the Potsdam Conference which decided the future of the devided Germany. The site is entirely in German.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian: Dividing the Spoils

For Students 9th - 10th
Historian Michael Beschloss discusses Harry S. Truman's role in the Potsdam Conference and examines how his decisions there paved the way for the Cold War. (December 2002)
Website
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Tpml: Truman and the Bomb, a Documentary History

For Students 9th - 10th
This site offers a comprehensive list of primary source documents from Harry S. Truman regarding the Potsdam Conference and decision to use atomic weapons.
Primary
ibiblio

Ibiblio: The Potsdam Declaration

For Students 9th - 10th
ibiblio.org provides the actual text of the Potsdam Declaration, the tripartite agreement signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Russia concerning conquered countries.
Website
US Department of State

Milestones: 1937 1945: Wartime Conferences, 1941 1945

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief description of each major conference held by members of the Allies in World War II discussing how the course of the war would be fought and ideas of what would happen when the war ended.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: The Presidency and the Cold War: Harry Truman

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Portrait Gallery explores presidendtial actions in regard to the Cold War. Click on Harry Truman to see what actions and decisions he made during his term of office. Read about his meeting with Joseph Stalin at Potsdam, the...
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: Cold War Estrangement

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the Library of Congress discusses the progress of World War II, and the nature of the postwar settlement at conferences in Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam.
Article
US Navy

Uss Augusta Transports President Truman

For Students 9th - 10th
[Archived Content] An article about the USS Augusta, a ship which transported President Truman to and from the Potsdam Conference.
Primary
Mount Holyoke College

International Relations: Communist Bloc Expansion in the Early Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
This Mount Holyoke college site provides the text of Douglas J. Macdonald's "Communist Bloc Expansion in the Early Cold War: Challenging Realism, Refuting Revisionism."
Handout
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Harry S. Truman Library & Museum: Truman Biography

For Students 9th - 10th
A very easy-to-read biographical sketch of Harry S. Truman. Includes suggestions for further reading.
Activity
National Archives (UK)

National Archives Exhibit: The Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource enables the viewer to explore various events and topics of the Cold War through learning games, primary documents, and a tour through an interactive bunker.
Unit Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Churchill and the Great Republic

For Students 9th - 10th
An interactive online exhibit about Churchill's life and especially his relationship with the United States.
Unit Plan
National Archives (UK)

The Learning Curve: Allies at War

For Students 9th - 10th
An extensive site chronicling the public consensus shown to the media among Allied members: the USSR, Great Britain, and the USA. Gives ample primary sources and student activities.
Website
National Archives (UK)

Nalc: Cold War

For Students 9th - 10th
The tension between Great Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union at end of World War II is surveyed with an excellent presentation with many links and images, a time line, glossary, and archive.
Unit Plan
National Archives (UK)

Cold War: Allies at War What the Public Did Not See

For Students 9th - 10th
A comprehensive search into the growing distrust between Allied countries at the beginning of the Cold War. Includes great primary source documents and questions directed toward students.
Handout
Geographic

Workmall: Germany: Postwar Occupation and Division

For Students 9th - 10th
This article describes the formation of the Allied Occupation Zones that administered a defeated Nazi Germany in the aftermath of World War 2.
Website
A&E Television

History.com: Vj Day: Victory Over Japan Day

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive discussion of V-J Day or the day victory was declared in Japan. Includes details and facts about World War II and the war in the Pacific, the surrender, related photos and speeches, battle maps, and more.