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Advanced Placement

AP US History

Topic 7.14: Postwar Diplomacy

Updated · For the May 2027 AP exam

AP US History Topic 7.14, Postwar Diplomacy, covers how wartime conferences and the war's devastation left the United States the most powerful nation on Earth in 1945. At Yalta in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin planned occupation zones in Germany and Soviet entry against Japan. After Roosevelt died in April, Truman attended the Potsdam Conference in July, and the Potsdam Declaration warned Japan of "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender. The United Nations Charter, signed in June 1945 and approved by the Senate, committed the United States to international leadership.

Trinity How the Allies Won World War II and America Came Out on Top · 1942–1945

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Postwar Diplomacy in two minutes

  • By 1945 Europe and much of Asia lay devastated, while the United States, with its factories untouched, held the world's largest navy and the first atomic bombs.
  • The Atlantic Charter (1941) pledged self-determination and no territorial conquests, and the Bretton Woods conference (1944) designed the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, an economic order built around the dollar.
  • At Yalta (February 1945) Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on German occupation zones, a United Nations conference and Soviet entry against Japan, and pledged free elections in liberated Europe.
  • Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, and Harry Truman became president; the UN Charter, signed June 26, won Senate approval 89 to 2, unlike the League.
  • At Potsdam (July–August 1945), Truman, Churchill (then Clement Attlee) and Stalin confirmed the four-power occupation of Germany; the Potsdam Declaration of July 26 threatened Japan with prompt and utter destruction.
  • Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings and the Soviet declaration of war, signing aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945; American forces under MacArthur then occupied Japan.
  • On the exam: Topic 7.14 tests sourcing, such as the Potsdam Declaration's point of view, and why the war left the United States dominant; it leads into the Cold War.

Transcript

The transcript appears here once this topic is finished.

Unit 7 review 1890–1945

  1. 7.1 Contextualizing Period 7 A Splendid Little War
  2. 7.2 Imperialism: Debates A Splendid Little War
  3. 7.3 The Spanish–American War A Splendid Little War
  4. 7.4 The Progressives The Other Half
  5. 7.5 World War I: Military and Diplomacy He Kept Us Out of War
  6. 7.6 World War I: Home Front Safe for Democracy
  7. 7.7 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology Static
  8. 7.8 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies Static
  9. 7.9 The Great Depression Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
  10. 7.10 The New Deal Fear Itself
  11. 7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy Outlawing War
  12. 7.12 World War II: Mobilization Double V
  13. 7.13 World War II: Military Trinity
  14. 7.14 Postwar Diplomacy Trinity
  15. 7.15 Comparison in Period 7 The American Century

All of AP US History