1) US, British and USSR relations in 1945 Flashcards
Yalta conference
-Feb 1945
-a conference in Crimea to discuss the aftermath of the imminent end of WW2
Soviet aims at Yalta
-should be compensated, 2.5 million killed, most losses
-Baltic states as buffer zones
-no support to exiled Polish Government
British aims at Yalta
protect Polish territory and self-determination
maintain previously agreed spheres of influence
protect French and British colonial interests
US aims at Yalta
Stop the ever-growing soviet sphere of influence
Decolonisation
Self-determination
American demobilisation ASAP
4 policemen of US, USSR, Britain and China
Potsdam conference
July/August 1945
After VE but still at war with Japan
Attempt to solve the problem of Germany
Stalin is told of the bomb
Agreements at Potsdam
Germany disarmed and demilitarised
De-nazification carried out
decentralisation of the political system, local responsibility was developed (making Germany a democracy)
4 Freedoms restored (speech, press, religion ect)
Germany to become a single economic unit
USSR gets 25% reparations from the other zones as well as from its own
Agreement to share responsibility in Korea, working towards unity
LITTLE DONE TO COMBAT EXPANSIONISM
Changes in Leadership at Potsdam and what it meant
FDR-Truman: willing to take a harsher approach to Soviet expansionism.
Churchill- Attlee: willing to follow America’s lead as he is more concerned with the problems within Britain.
Both were dissatisfied with Soviet actions in liberated states and saw them as a violation of the Yalta accords (liberation of Europe agreement)
Stalin: stayed the same
Agreements made at Yalta
Division of Germany and Berlin
UN ratified
Boarders of Poland altered (USSR gains land from Poland and Poland gains land from east Germany)
Declaration of Liberated Europe should be created (promise that gave Europeans political freedom)
When were the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
6th and 9th of August 1945
when did Japan surrender
14th August 1945
Why did Japan surrender
Bombs dropped of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
Gouzenko and Volkov
Gouzenko- a cipher clerk at soviet embassy who walked out with numerous classified files which he revealed to the west with the details of Soviet spies in the west
Volkov- NKGB officer who tried to do a similar thing to Gouzenko but he was caught and executed
Philby- a soviet spy in M15 who disregarded a lot of Gouzenko’s evidence
Shows how entrenched Soviet espionage was
What happened to Britain’s wealth after WW2
lost 1/4 of national wealth
Soviet expansion in 1946
Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and east Germany all fall under a communist influence
When do communists win the popular vote in Bulgaria
75%
October 1946
