For two weeks in the summer of 1945, from

July 17 to August 2, Harry Truman, Winston

Churchill, and Josef Stalin gathered to recon-

struct the world out of the ruins left by the

Second World War. They met only a few miles,"

as President Truman noted, "from the war-

shattered seat of Nazi power around a baize-

covered table in the Cecilienhof Palace at

Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin, a place they later

remembered vividly for its hardy mosquitos and

muggy heat.

First in Teheran (November 1943), then in

Yalta (February 1945), the Allied powers had

met, engaging in the cordial horse-trading of

properties and promises, to perpetuate a united

military front against Germany. Potsdam, how-

ever, was different. With Germany defeated, the

Allies knew victory in the Far East was immi-

nent. The objective was no longer how to unite

for victory, but how instead to divide the spoils

and create a new balance of power. In MEETING

AT POTSDAM, Charles Mee demonstrates how,

with national self-interest the primary motiva-

tion, peace was destined to be sacrificed to

deliberate discord. If Allied harmony would

stand in the way of expanding "spheres of in-

fluence," then it would become necessary to