Arnold at Potsdam (Henry H. Arnold‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The now-famous Potsdam Conference in July 1945, featuring the allied leaders, Truman, Churchill, and Stalin, was the last high level conference of World War II. The Allies promulgated the Potsdam Proclamation, calling for Japan to surrender or face utter destruction. Also present at the Potsdam Conference were the U.S. and British Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS), including the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, General Henry H. (Hap) Arnold. For Arnold, weary from four years of exhausting strategic decision-making and global travel, it was nonetheless the apex of his efforts and leadership. He had recently returned from the Pacific, where Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay had informed him that Japan could be forced to capitulate by the end of October due to the culmination of intensive strategic bombing and the sea and air blockades. LeMay's view gave Arnold a surge of optimism as had the results of incendiary bombing over the last several months. These indicators went a long way toward ameliorating Arnold's caution, a holdover from the European experience with strategic bombing.