Beginnings of the Cold War:1945 - 1949

Beginnings of the Cold War:1945 - 1949

Focus: Who was to blame?• Read, don’t write:• In May 1945 American troops entered

Berlin from the west, as Russian troops moved in from the east. They met and celebrated victory together. Yet three years later these former allies were arguing over Berlin and war between them seemed a real possibility. What had gone wrong?

• In this unit you will consider:– How the wartime alliance between the USA &

the USSR broke down– How the Soviet Union gained control over

eastern Europe & how the USA responded– The consequences of the Berlin Blockade of

1948

• Finally, you will make up your own mind as to whether the USA or the USSR was more to blame for the outbreak of the Cold War

Timeline

1946 1947 1948 194919501945

Feb

May

July

March

Oct

March

April

May

Yalta Conference

Hitler defeated

Potsdam Conference

Truman Doctrine anounced

Stalin sets up Cominform

June

Marshall Aid introduced

Berlin Blockade

NATO set up

Berlin Blockade lifted

Aug Japan defeated

Yalta Conference, February 1945• Big 3 met in Yalta, Ukraine (USSR) to

plan for post-war Europe– Conference went well– Despite differences, agreement reached on

some important matters• So what message is FDR trying to

make in his speech? In no less than 25 words identify that message

FDR’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress upon his return from Yalta, Russia

Yalta Agreements• USSR will go to war w/ (J) > (G) defeated• (G) divided into 4 zones:

– USA, (E), (F), USSR– Berlin, in USSR zone, divided into 4 zones

• Nazi concentration camps found– War criminals will be hunted down

• Liberated countries will hold free elections• United Nations Organization founded

– USA, USSR, (E), (F) & China have veto

• USSR suffered terribly, needed security– Lost 20-27 million people– Feared future invasion– Big 3 agreed that Eastern Europe should be

seen as ‘Soviet sphere of influence’

You are listening to cheese; pure, unadulterated cheese, and this not even from happy California cows

One minute: Choose two points of agreement from the list above that you think were most important for the future peace of Europe, and explain why.

Yalta Disagreement• Stalin wanted Polish border moved

westward, expanding Soviet territory– S wanted land (P) took in 1921 returned– S wanted some (G) territory given to (P)

• Churchill & FDR didn’t like idea– Could do little, as USSR controlled area

• Churchill, FDR make deal w/ Stalin– They will not resist S’s taking (P) territory

if S did not interfere w/ (E)’s attempt to put down Communist revolt in Greece

– S accepted this as realpolitik– S also liked precedent of major power

establishing a friendly gov’t– S could claim same privilege in E Europe

Focus Task: What was going on behind the scenes at Yalta?

I want to drink to our alliance, that it should not lose its … intimacy, its free expression of views … I know of no such close alliance of three Great Powers as this … May it be strong and stable, may we be as frank as possible

- Stalin, proposing a toast at a dinner at the Yalta conference, 1945

As members of a three-person OSS team of secret agents (OSS is the predecessor of the CIA) you have ‘come into possession’ of secret documents relating to the Yalta Conference. The war against Hitler had united Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill and at the Yalta Conference they appeared to get on well. The above quote illustrates the ‘public’ face of Yalta. But what was going on behind the scenes? Examine the quotes on the handouts and decide for yourself.

-Use a table like the above to analyze the sources.

- The value & limitations are from the perspective of a historian researching the level of trust between the ‘Big Three’ at Yalta

LimitationsValuePurposeOrigin

PSDs for Yalta Conference • Perhaps you think that just because we are the allies of the English we have

forgotten who they are and who Churchill is. There’s nothing they like better than to trick their allies. During the first World War they constantly tricked the Russians and the French. And Churchill? Churchill is the kind of man who will pick your pocket of a kopeck [penny]! And Roosevelt? Roosevelt is not like that. He dips in his hand only for bigger coins. But Churchill? He will do it for a kopeck.– Stalin speaking to a fellow Communist, Milovan Djilas, in 1945. Djilas was a

supporter of Stalin

• In the hallway [at Yalta] we stopped before a map of the world on which the Soviet Union was colored in red. Stalin waved his hand over the Soviet Union and exclaimed, ‘They [Roosevelt and Churchill] will never accept the idea that so great a space should be red, never, never!’– Milovan Djilas, writing about Yalta in 1948

PSDs for Yalta Conference• Once, Churchill asked Stalin to send him the music of the new Soviet Russian

anthem so that it could be broadcast before the summary of the news from the Soviet German front. Stalin sent the words [as well] and expressed the hope that Churchill would set about learning the new tune and whistling it to members of the conservative Party. While Stalin behaved with relative discretion with Roosevelt, he continually teased Churchill throughout the war.– Written by Soviet historian Sergei Kudryashov after the war

• The Soviet Union has become a danger to the free world. A new front must be created against her onward sweep. This front should be as far east as possible. A settlement must be reached on all major issues between West and East in Europe before the armies of democracy melt away.– Churchill writing to Roosevelt shortly after the Yalta Conference

PSDs for Yalta Conference

• [At Yalta] Churchill feared that Roosevelt was too pro-Russian. He pressed for a French zone to be added to the other three to add another anti-Russian voice to the armies of occupation.– Written by Christopher Culpin in a school textbook, The Modern World, 1984

A Soviet cartoon published in Provda (‘Truth’), the primary Soviet newspaper. Churchill is shown with two flags, the first proclaiming that ‘Anglo-Saxons must rule the world’ and the other threatening an ‘iron curtain’.

PSDs for Yalta Conference • One could see that Churchill had left a deep impression on the Soviet leaders as

a farsighted and dangerous statesman – although they did not like him.– Milovan Djilas comments, in 1948, on Stalin’s assessment of Churchill

• [In May 1945] Churchill ordered Montgomery to keep the German arms intact, in case they had to be used against the Russians.– Written by historian Hugh Higgins in The Cold War, 1974

• One night Stalin stung Churchill when proposing a toast by reminding Churchill of his failures at Gallipoli in the First World War. Another night Churchill declared (whilst slightly drunk) that he deserved a medal for teaching the Soviet army to fight so well through the intervention at Archangel.– The Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov writing about Yalta. In 1915 Churchill had been

responsible for a failed attack at Gallipoli. In 1918 Churchill had supported the British decision to send troops to Archangel to help in the fight against the Communists in the Russian Civil War

Activity: BBC World Service Reporting• Work in pairs• Role-play being two investigative

journalists for the British Broadcasting Company, one from 1945, just after the Yalta conference, and one from today, having just uncovered the primary sources on your handout.

• Together, produce a press release from the Yalta Conference to be sent to newspapers in Britain in 1945 for public consumption (remember, censorship!).

• Then, produce a press release for today.• Be prepared to present the results of

your work in a “that was then, this is now” format.

Fin