Cold War

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Negotiations between the Usa, Britain and Russia.

In Febuary 1945 , months before Germany surrendered , president Franklin Roosavelt, Prime minister Winston Churchill and Dictator of soviet union Josef Stalin all met in yalta, Ukraine. this conference was to decide what was going to happen to germany after wwII. despite the differences it was agreed that:

All of the big 3 would focus on defeating japan once germany had surrendered to bring WWII to a complete end.

Germany would be divided into 4 Zones. - American British, Russian and french.

Criminials resonsible for the genocide of the jews would be hunted and punished

all would join united nations organisation to keep the peace.

USSR would be allowed greater influence over eastern europe.

the only dissagreemtn however was that stalin wanted greater control over poland swell. he claimed that poland would then move its own border west into german territory. although churchill and roosavelt disagreed with this there wasn't much they could do because stalins red army had already seized poland and eastern germany as WWII had unfolded. Churchill did make clear that he was to have no interference with grece or turkey.

Events leading up to potsdam

in may 1945 , allied troops reached berlin in germany . hitler ended his life and germany surrendered. following this a second conference was put in place in potsdam berlin. however a lot had changed since the yalta conference.firstly , stalins army had freed most of eastern europe from german control in WWII and he had simply stayed there keeping eastern europe under his control.

secondly, president roosavelt died and was replaced by Harry truman who was much more anticommunist and a lot more suspicious of stalin and his actions.

thirdly isa had been developing an atomic bomb and tested it in the american desert but stalin had spies already watching isa develop this bomb . this highlights the mistrust between the 2 leaders and maybe that stalin felt threatened by tremens power.

Potsdam confrence July-August 1945

begun on july 17th and didn't go as smoothly as yalta for the following reasons :

Winston churchil lost the general election which meant he was replaced by a new prime minister, Clement ahllee, half way through yalta tensions built between truman and stalin with ahlee unable to stop it.

USA and USSR disagreed with what to do with germany. stalin wanted to cripple germany but truman was cautious to take that much action as he feared that they may get entry and bitter and seek revenge in the future if they were to act to rashly on them .

Stalin demanded $10 billion dollars in compensation off germany but again truman resisted this because he thought germany may become bitter and seek revenge in the future.

truman became much more firm with stalin as he was being tougher with the demand that stalin made to have control ver eastern europe as he feared that stalin was trying to establish a soviet empire there.

Finally as the conference was occurring japan were refusing to surrender so isa dropped an atomic bomb on there eland . some historians say that truman authorised the bomb drop partly to prove to stalin that he wasn't going to let anything happen he wasn't `a push over .

The iron curtain and the further development of the silvery between america and ussr.

By 1946,there was a division across europe. most nations in eastern europe had communist leaders and governments in power which swore loyalty to stalin . by late 1947 czechoslovakia, greece and turkey were the only places not controlled by a communist government, those in western europe reained capitalist, with governments there fearful of further communist advance. wINSTON CHURCHILL DESCRIBED THE BORDER BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN EUROPE AS THE IRON CURTAIN

reaction of the west

whilst stalin saw his policy in eastern europe as making the ussr secure in the event of future wars. president truman saw the spread of communism and felt very concerned.

by 194, Greece and Turkey were at high risk of becoming communist. The british had been based in Greece since 1945 to try stop comment group from seizing power.however by 1947, they'd withdrawn as theory id not have the resource to bring the unrest to an end. at the same time stalin was keen to to control turkey so that soviet ships could acsess the mediteranian easier. if turkey became communist, it was feared that stalin could move communism to the middle east, a region which provided oil reserves to isa if this region became communist , it might refuse to continue trading with the isa. which would of caused problems for its economy.

The Truman Doctrine 1947 march.

the dangerous situations in greece and turkey resulted in the "truman Doctrine" whereby the isa would send money and resources to any country which appeared threatened by a communist takeover. Truman was aiming for the containment of communism as he knew he couldn't completely wipe it out. Truman immediatley sent $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to secure them as allies and keep a stable government in power in Greece.

The marshall plan

Truman belived that countries most likely to turn communist were those in mass poverty, lack of essential resource and angry populations who felt forgotten by their government. He sent general George Marshall to asses the conic state of europe after WWII . Marshall found ruined economies that were deep in debt and people who were desperate.

although european nations already owed $11.5 billion to the USA marshall suggested that $17 billion of aid should be sent to help the european economy get going again. it would be spent on essentials like: food, raw materials, medicine, veichels and fuel. . congress initially hesitated at implementing the marshall plan , but agreed in 1948 after Czechoslovakia became communist.

On the one had the marshall plan was seen as incredibly generous act on behalf of the isa. on the other hand, it was motivated by self interest as the goods that were bought for these european nations came from american businesses which therefore profited and helped keep the american economy stable.most signifiaclly, the isa implemented the plan to try to stop communist ideas from spreading further across Europe and potentially getting to the isa , not because it genuinely cared for the other nations.

Stalin establishes the coniform 1947.

Stalin viewed the marshall plan with high sucpison and felt the isa was unlawfully interfering in european affairs. he refused to allow any of the eastern Euroepan nations he controlled to apply for the marshall plan. he put in place the communist information bureau (conformation) in october 1947 which instructed each communist government how to lead. leaders of each government were also brought to moscow to be briefed by stalin. such actions helped him determine which leaders were disloyal or incapable and meant he could quickly replace them.

Berlin BlocKade 1948

Stalin wanted authority on the city and to show that he was incontrol so he blocked roads, railways and canals that linked to west germany to stop the 2 million people getting any supplies. this was called the berlin blockade and was basically starving his people into accepting communism. if the people were isolated they may give in. this led to the

Berlin airlift

the isa and others had to tree carefully as any act of aggression may of led to a miss interpretation of war upon ussr . but truman was determind to act against stalin because if stalin got away with cutting off west berlin then he may do it to other cities in germany.. in june 1948 the berlin airlift began whereby countries like isa, france and uk flew planes over to planes containing clothes and food to berlin. however there was fear of the planes being shot down because they were flying over sobiet controlled land to her tot berlin. in the next 10 months he ends the blockade. after the blockade germany then split into 2 nations. west under uk USa and french control , east under soviet control.