As president , Truman appointed him United States representative to the Allied Reparations Committee from 1945 – 1947 . With the rank of ambassador , as well as industrial and commercial advisor to the Potsdam Conference , his chief task was to renegotiate the reparations agreements formulated at the Yalta Conference ( many of which affected eventual C.I.A. director Allen Dulles 's former clients ) . When Truman tried to appoint him Under Secretary of the Navy in 1946 , Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes resigned in protest , claiming that while Pauley was Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee , he had suggested to Ickes that $ 300,000 ( $ in dollars ) in campaign funds could be raised if the Interior Department would drop its fight against the State of California for ownership of oil-rich offshore lands . Ickes 's resignation scuttled the appointment , and Pauley worked behind the scenes thereafter
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Edwin W. Pauley