What the Potsdam Conference Did Not Initiate: The Cold War

The Potsdam Conference (1945) set crucial post‑war terms for Germany: division into four occupation zones, the Oder‑Neisse line as the eastern border, Berlin's quadripartite division, abolition of Nazism, demilitarization, and prosecution of war criminals. However, it did not start the Cold War. That ideological and geopolitical struggle emerged later from growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies.