Provided this video. We are at the 75th anniversary of the potsdam conference. Big numbers like the 75th anniversary or hundred anniversary, are always occasions for looking back and for drawing attention. I think there is another reason to look back at potsdam as we are in our own day and age, reentering a world of Great Power Competition and reentering a world where geopolitics seems to have come back to the fore of international thinking in International Relations thinking. So it is well worth us coming back to this subject. Im especially glad to have a chance to talk to you about it. I wish it was in person again, in kansas city. I wish that we were able to do this face to face, but we will do the very best that we can. The key thing here, that i want to return to throughout this presentation, is shown by this photograph here, of Winston Churchill, harry truman and Joseph Stalin smiling and shaking hands. And the point that i really want to reiterate here, is that these three men a
Bomb hiroshima and nagasaki is that title of a series of American University institute of Nuclear Studies Institute Press briefings. Up next, for historians who have spent decades studying the topic summarize the findings about then take questions from journalists. The Nuclear Studies institute recorded this zoom event and provided the video. Barbara cochran, Professor Emeritus of the university of Missouri School of journalism, the world first journalism school. Andally i was a journalist news executive at the washington star, npr, bc, and cbs. I wont moderate the discussion today. And ninth, 1945, the United States dropped the only Nuclear Weapons ever used in a war on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki. 75 years later the debate continues over the decision of president Harry S Truman to use these weapons. The world still echoes with the repercussions of that act. For journalists, the anniversary of major events offer what editors love, a news peg. Anniversaries present th
The key thing here that i want to return to throughout this presentation is shown by this photograph here of Winston Churchill, harry truman, and Joseph Stalin smiling and shaking hands. And the point that i really want to reiterate here is that these three men and most of the advisors around them did not believe that what they were doing at potsdam was laying the seeds of a cold war. We know from the scholarship of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond, a lot of historians read potsdam backwards. That is to say they read it as a part start of the cold war. But these three men and their staff came to potsdam not to begin a cold war amongst themselves, but celebrate, really, the end of the war with germany, figure out what the post world war was going to look like, and plan for the final victory over japan in the pacific theater. This photograph very much reflects the spirit of potsdam, which i will talk a little bit more about in a bit, which was happy, which was victorious, which was joyful, wh
I am glad to have a chance to talk to you about it. I was it was in person in kansas city. I wish that we were able to do this facetoface, but we will do the very best that we can. The key thing here that i want to return to throughout this presentation is shown by this photograph here of Winston Churchill, harry truman, and Joseph Stalin smiling and shaking hands. And the point that i really want to reiterate here is that these three men and most of the advisors around them did not believe that what they were doing at potsdam was laying the seeds of a cold war. We know from the scholarship of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond, a lot of historians read potsdam backwards. That is to say they read it as a start of the cold war. But these three men and their staff came to potsdam not to begin a cold war amongst themselves, but celebrate, really, the end of the war with germany, figure out what the post world war was going to look like, and plan for the final victory over japan in the pacific th
Anniversary of the potsdam conference. Big numbers like the 75th anniversary or 100th anniversary are always occasions for looking back and drawing attention. I think there is another reason to look back at potsdam, as we are reentering a world of Great Power Competition and reentering a world where geopolitics seems to have come back to the fore of International Relations thinking. So it is well worth us coming back to this subject. I am glad to have a chance to talk to you about it. I wish it was in person again in kansas city. I wish that we were able to do this facetoface, but we will do the very best that we can. The key thing here that i want to reiterate throughout this presentation is shown by this photograph here of Winston Churchill, harry truman, and Joseph Stalin smiling and shaking hands. And the point that i really want to reiterate here is that these three men and most of the advisors around them did not believe that what they were doing at potsdam was laying the seeds o