Leseprobe

17 The articles in this volume also look at the impact of the con- ference and its results—in the way they were made known to the world in the “Communiqué”—and at what these results meant for the people affected by the resolutions and those who had hoped for more, or more far-reaching, compassion with their fates. It is an attempt to broaden our perspective—focusing not only on the objec- tives of the three victorious powers or the impact of the conference results on Germany or Poland. Against the background of the Potsdam discussions, which dealt with a large number of political issues and states worldwide, our aim here is to devote more space than usual to those issues which have not, or only incidentally, been included in the “Commu- niqué” and the “Protocol”—even if it has not been possible to deal with every aspect, nor deal exhaustively with the aspects taken into account. The importance of the Potsdam Conference should be con- sidered and weighed with regard not only to the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, on the one hand, and to Ger- many and Poland, on the other, but also to all those affected directly or indirectly by the decisions—the displaced persons and Holocaust survivors, who had no voice in Potsdam; the Chinese, the Japanese and the Koreans, who were still at war; the Persians whose fate was decided without consulting their interests or wishes; the French, who were among the victorious powers but had not been invited. Beyond a purely political analysis of the Potsdam consultations and resolutions which left many issues unresolved and indefinite, and yet created a new world order, a look at the impact of the conference and those directly affected by it makes for a better understanding of today’s world and its problems.  | CN Notes 1 Report on the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocu- ments/frus1945Berlinv02/d1384 [accessed 20 January 2020]. / 2  Ibid. / 3  Ibid. / 4 Feis 1962, 333–34. / 5 1945, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), vol. 2, 1474–76. / 6 Feis 1960; Betzell 1970; Mee 1975; Dobbs 2012; Neiberg 2015. / 7 Kröger 1957; Faust 1960; Deuerlein 1961; Antoni 1985.