In 1945, when the Second World War struggled to find its conclusion, the allied leaders of the "three great" (United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom) met in the German city of Potsdam to achieve a compromise which mustput an end to the deadliest war that the world has known.These great powers decide to share Germany in occupied areas, to recognize a pro-Soviet government in Poland and to divide Vietnam, all decisions that shape the post-war world order.These negotiations must make it possible to forge lasting peace.But in the space of 18 months is a cold war that will last more than four decades.
In Potsdam performs a particularly important event which is not subject to any note or any official declaration.At the end of the conference, US President Harry Truman takes his Soviet counterpart Joseph Staline to make him an explosive announcement: the United States has just successfully tested a weapon with "extraordinary destructive force".It is a nuclear weapon capable of destroying entire cities, the most dangerous and powerful armaments ever seen.
It only takes a few weeks in the United States to use the atomic weapon and forced Japan to surrender.With this devastating weapon tested in its arsenal, the United States suddenly takes over among the powers that had allied during the war during the war.There followed a perilous struggle for supremacy between two superpowers, the United States and the USSR, which lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
