Supreme Authority

06/03/20 • 22 min

With the war in Europe over, the Allied powers had to turn to the difficult business of governing Germany and the other occupied territories. It was a huge task: to restart a functioning economy for an entire continent, to restore systems of law and government, to bind up the wounds of war. On June 5, 1945, the US, UK, USSR, and France jointly assumed "supreme authority" over German territory. The Third Reich was now dead, and Germany officially passed under the control of the victorious Allies.

Previous Episode

Death Stand

The war in Europe was over, but fighting raged in the Pacific. “We are only half-through,” Truman declares to the American people. He was right. The Battle of Okinawa (April 1 - June 22) was one of the hardest-fought in the history of the US military. Okinawa is a mass of mountains, jungle, and mud, and the battle generated monstrous casualties on both sides, 93,000 Japanese, 12,000 US, and 140,000 Okinawan civilians. Just days into his presidency, Commander-in-Chief Truman was presiding over a bloodbath.

Next Episode

Charter Into Deeds

World War II had been so horrible that the victorious powers decided that nothing like it must ever happen again. President Roosevelt’s dream had been to establish a “United Nations” (UN) organization, in which the peace-loving nations of the world would settle disputes and intervene to punish aggression, but it was Truman who saw it through. On June 26, the UN charter was signed in San Francisco. Would it succeed where previous international organizations had failed and keep the world at peace?