The Cold War - Causes
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Transcript of The Cold War - Causes
Differences in ideologies
The USSR (Soviet Union) The USA
The USSR was a Communist state The USA was a Capitalist state
It was a one-party dictatorship The USA was a democracy
Many people were opposed to
Capitalism
Many people were opposed to
Communism
The rights of the individuals < good of
the whole society
Being free of control by the
government > everyone being equal
It was an economic superpower but
the general standard of living was low
It was the world’s richest state
Why couldn’t the Big Three get on after
World War two?
They had lost their common enemy – Hitler
Stalin felt that he had sacrificed more than the others
The USA was afraid of the USSR’s Communist policies
The USSR had been attacked in both of the world wars and were afraid of
being attacked again
In the Russian Civil War (1920s) the USA and Britain had sent soldiers to fight
against the Communists
Policy of appeasement
1930s: Stalin thought Britain was happy to see Germany grow in power so
Hitler could attack the USSR
August 1939: Nazi Soviet Pact – Germany would not fight. The USSR and
Germany secretly agreed to attack Poland together and divide between
them
1941: Hitler broke the pact, and invaded the USSR
The Yalta conference
February 1945
Stalin, Churchill and FDR met to discuss what to do about Hitler
Met in Yalta in Ukraine
The Yalta conference: positives
They agreed that as countries were liberated from the Germans, they
would be allowed to hold free elections to choose the government they
wanted.
They all agreed to join the United Nations (UN) Organisation, which would
keep peace after the war.
They agreed to divide Germany into four zones: American, French, British,
and Soviet.
Berlin would also be divided into four zones.
Stalin was concerned about the future security of the USSR and they
agreed that eastern Europe would be seen as a Soviet Sphere of influence.
The Yalta conference: positives
Churchill persuaded FDR to accept Stalin’s plan for Poland as long as the
USSR agreed not to interfere in Greece, where Britain was attempting to
stop the Communists from taking over. Stalin accepted that.
They agreed to hunt down and punish war criminals who were responsible
for the genocide in the concentration camps in Germany.
Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan once Germany had
surrendered.
The Yalta conference: negatives
Churchill and FDR did not approve of Stalin’s plan for Poland, but they
knew they couldn’t do much about it as Stalin’s red army was in control of
Poland
They disagreed about what to do with Poland. Stalin wanted the border of
the USSR to move westwards into Poland.
Churchill was worried that FDR was too friendly with the Russians.
British army chiefs, in a top-secret memo, planned how they would impose
the will of the USA and Britain on the Russians. This was called Operation
Unthinkable and was eventually rejected by Churchill.
Stalin thought that the Polish border could be moved into German territory.
This would not make the Germans or the USA or UK happy.
The Potsdam conference
July 1945 in Potsdam in Germany
Yalta had shown how difficult it was for the Allies to reach agreement
By this point, Soviet troops had liberated the whole of Eastern Europe from
Nazi control
The USA and Britain hoped that there would be free elections to set up
democratic governments. Instead Soviet troops remained in the liberated
countries
By the time the conference got underway the Americans had successfully
tested an atomic bomb
Truman (USA president) informed Stalin and Clement Attlee (Prime Minister)
that his country now had the bomb
The Potsdam conference: positives
Germany would be divided as agreed at Yalta, and the Allies would
receive reparations
Poland’s eastern border would be moved west to the rivers Oder and
Neisse
The Nazi Party was banned and its leaders were to be tried as war criminals
Germans living in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia would be sent
back to Germany
The Potsdam conference: negatives
The Soviet Union wanted to impose severe reparations on Germany to
cripple it for years to come. Truman blocked this
The Soviet Union wanted to share in the occupation of Japan once it was
defeated. Truman refused
After the conference, Stalin ordered his scientists to work flat out to develop
a Soviet atomic bomb
Lublin and London poles
Lublin Poles: a Russian government in exile, ready to take over Poland
London Poles: a strongly anti-communist group, who were aiming to gain
part of Poland before Stalin’s Red Army took full control
By January 1945, the Lublin Poles had full control of Poland
Soviet expansion
Czechoslovakia: a left-wing coalition won elections in 1945. in 1946
Communists became the largest single party, but still in a coalition. In 1948,
when their position was threatened, they banned other parties and made
Czechoslovakia a Communist, one-party state
East Germany: the Allies had given the USSR control of the eastern sector of
Germany. It was run by the USSR effectively under Red Army control until
the creation of the German Democratic Republic in 1949
Poland: after the war the Communists joined a coalition government, then
became outright leaders in 1947 when they forced the non-Communist
leader into exile
Soviet expansion
Hungary: Communists became the largest single party in the 1947 election.
They imprisoned opposition politicians, and attacked Church leaders
Albania: Communists gained power immediately after the war. There was
little opposition
Yugoslavia: Marshall Tito had led war-time resistance to the Nazis. He was
elected President in 1945. Although Communist, he was determined to
apply Communism in his own way, not Stalin’s, and was expelled from
Cominform in 1948
The Iron Curtain
5th March 1946
Winston Churchill gave a speech in Fulton in America
He said that Eastern Europe was cut off from the free by ‘an iron curtain’
and was ‘subject to Soviet influence’
The message of the speech was so clear that Stalin claimed Churchill’s
speech was a declaration of war
Greece
In 1944, there were two rival groups in Greece, the monarchists and the
Communists, who wanted to rule the country
Churchill sent British troops to Greece in 1945, supposedly to help restore
order and supervise free elections. In fact, the British supported the
monarchists and the king was returned to power
In 1946, the USSR protested to the UN that British troops were a threat to
peace in Greece. The UN took no action and so the Communists tried to
take control of Greece by force. This triggered a civil war
The British could not afford this cost and announced they were withdrawing
their troops
Truman paid for them to stay instead
The Truman Doctrine
A speech made by Truman on 12th March 1947
It officially announced the policy of containment
The policy of containment was the plan to stop the spread of Communism
“USA is prepared to give help to any country under threat from
communism”
Marshall Aid
The Truman Doctrine in action
Congress agreed to fund this after Czechoslovakia turned Communist in
1948
1948-52: $13 billion given to 16 European states, mostly Britain and France
Also offered funds to Communist satellite states, but Stalin prevented
Marshall Aid from reaching the East
Stalin thought they were using economic imperialism to bribe other
countries to unite against the USSR
As a response, Stalin formed COMINFORM in September 1947. This
strengthened ties between Communist countries
The Communist countries in Western Europe were ordered to wreck
Marshall Aid by going on strike
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
It was formed in April 1949
This was a military alliance that promised to help if any of the members
were attacked
It consisted of the USA, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal
Greece and Turkey joined in 1952
West Germany joined in 1955
The Berlin Blockade: causes
The American, British and French zones had merged to form Trizonia
They had introduced a new currency into Western Berlin and West
Germany on 23rd June
The USSR wanted to keep Germany weak but the USA and UK wanted to
rebuild the German economy
West Berlin became a show piece of capitalism and showed that Marshall
Aid worked, which was an embarrassment to Stalin
The Berlin Blockade: what happened
24th June 1948: Stalin blocked all routes in and out of Berlin – road, rail and
canal
The Allies would not give into Stalin but didn’t want to provoke a war. Their
response was to fly supplies into West Berlin
This caused the Berlin Airlift
For 11 months, food and other supplies were flown into Berlin. At its peak,
one plane landed every three minutes
May 1949 – Stalin called off the Blockade
The Berlin Blockade: results
In May 1949, Trizonia became the Federal Republic of Germany
The USSR’s zone was formed into the German Democratic Republic in
October 1949
At the height of the crisis of the Berlin Blockade, the Western powers met in
Washington and signed an agreement to work together. NATO was formed
in April 1949