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The Grand Alliance

The members of Grand Alliance were America and USSR

Its aim was to defeat the Nazis and was created in 1941

it was like a marriage between capitalists and communists and the only united in their opposition to Hitler

Hitler had been defeated and the alliance became uneasy.

Between 1943 and 1945 the leaders had 3 international conferences called "Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam"

Each of the leaders wanted others to know that countries fell out the "sphere of influence" and countries that did not

None of the documents which were properly signed laid out these spheres

It was clear that there was broad agreement over what these were, The USSR influenced Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, Hungary and Romania. This would build a line of Buffer States between the USSR and the west.

Stalin agreed this could be "influence "only with these states having free elections and a level of democracy (was built in to the Yalta document)

The USSR also wanted to influence Yugoslavia which had its own communist government and it was accepted as a communist country in Yalta

Britain and USA were keen to get the USSR to accept their influence in western Europe, Greece and Italy

The Truman Doctrine

Truman asked the American military to assess the strengths of the USSR

He knew the USSR could not wage a war and believed they had another method that would make them conquer other territories without declaring war

America had responsibility to fight liberty wherever it was threatened

the world had 2 options communist tyranny or democratic freedom

America sent troops and economic resources to help governments which were threatened by communist

Communism should not be allowed to grow and gain territory these points were in the Truman doctrine

The Marshall plan

The Marshall plan was about giving 13 billion to rebuild the shattered economies of Europe.

They did it to stop people getting attracted by communists

They promised to people who were suffering from economic hardship of sharing resources equally under communism had great appeal

It also helped the Americans economy because European countries had to trade freely.

The reaction to the Marshall plan was there was a conference in Paris in 1948 to discuss American offer

Many countries wanted Marshall aid

The USSR walked out the conference saying Americans wanted to split Europe into 2 camps

They said that this was the first step for waging war against the soviet union by creating a military alliance

Stalin also insisted that the European refuse to get help from America and by contract 16 countries including BRITAIN and FRANCE welcomed the offer. They did it as they saw a way of rebuilding their economies and killing communism in their own countries

Satellite State

It is a country which is officially independent country which is controlled by another. Between 1947 and 1949 the USSR extended the influence over eastern Europe, turning countries e.g. Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary into satellite states

Stalin described the Marshall Plan as dollar imperialism, he believed the Americans were trying to buy influence over Europe because by accepting the aid you are becoming an American Ally.

Staline created a series of satelites to extend his control over Europe and to prevent being controlled

Stalin took control by making sure the communist parties in each state had leaders that would obey moscow

creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust so it would be hard for people to trust each other enough to work who opposed the soviet union

Using police and military to kill any type of opposition

Arranging economies of these countries so they were dependent on yhr USSR by rationalising industries to prevent satelites being self sufficient e.g. poland did allthe shipbuilding and Hungary did the truck work

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