Focuses on international, diplomatic and military history of the 20th century. In particular the era of the world wars and the cold war. And in addition to the age of eisenhower, dr. Hitchcock is the author of the bitter road to freedom, a new history of the liberation of europe which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a winner of the george lewis spear prize and was also a Financial Times best seller in the united kingdom. Following dr. Hitchcocks remarks, ann compton who you all know will join dr. Hitchcock for a conversation on this great biography and the 34th president of the United States. Ann is a pioneer of journalism in america. She was the first woman to cover the white house for Network Television and was on the air for 41 years with abc news. Her longevity and her impact are inparalleled. Anns career at abc news span seven president s of the United States, ten president ial campaigns. She anchored from the white house, from capitol hill, and president ial travel that took he
It would soon be unleashed on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki. The Truman Library institute provided this video. We are at the 75th anniversary of the potsdam conference. Big numbers like a 75th anniversary or a 100th anniversary are always occasions for looking back and for drawing attention. I think theres 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 and International Relations thinking. So its well worth us comiing back to this subject, so 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 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 josef stalin smilin
75 years ago this month, the u. S. Exploded an atomic bomb over hiroshima, japan. Up next, a 1945 newsreel about events leading to the decision to release the bomb. Following his arrival for the tripartite conference, president truman reviews the veterans second armored division. Mr. Truman arrives to berlin where men, tanks and vehicles are lined up for the president ial inspection. On 18th july, the president and mr. Burns our guests at soviet headquarters. Premier stalin acknowledges a request for photographs below the balcony and the group proceeds to the garden of the villa. The formal sessions of the Conference Get underway with president truman chosen to preside over the meetings. Premier stalin exchanges handshakes with Prime Minister churchill and anthony eden. Both church hill and eden are to be replaced as britains chief spokesman at the conference. Englands Prime Minister by virtue of his labor partys victory in the 25th july elections. After daily sessions for eight days,
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