Cold War (early tension)

Question 1

What was the ‘Grand Alliance’?

Answer 1

An alliance between the USA, Britain and the USSR to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war

Question 2

When was the ‘Grand Alliance’ created?

Answer 2

1941

Question 3

Who were the leaders of the ‘big three’ around the time of the Grand alliance?

Answer 3

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill

Question 4

What was agreed at the Tehran Conference?

Answer 4

• The Soviet Union would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated
• The boundaries of Poland would be moved westwards; Poland would gain territory from Germany and lose it to USSR
• Agreed that an international body would be set up to settle future disputes, which lead to the later establishment of United Nations

Question 5

When was the Tehran Conference?

Answer 5

November - December 1943

Question 6

When was the Yalta Conference?

Answer 6

February 1945

Question 7

What was agreed at the Yalta conference?

Answer 7

• Germany, when defeated, would be reduced in size, divided and demilitarised. It would have to pay reparations
• The UN (united nations) would be set up
• The soviet union would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated
• Poland would be in the ‘soviet sphere of influence’ but run on a broader democratic basis

Question 8

When was the Potsdam Conference?

Answer 8

July-August 1945

Question 9

What was agreed at the Potsdam Conference?

Answer 9

• A council of foreign ministers was set up to aid the rebuilding of Europe
• Nazi party was banned and war criminals were to be prosecuted
• Germany was to be reduced in size and divided in 4 zones of occupation for the USA, Britain, France and USSR
• Berlin was also to be divided into zones of occupation

Question 10

When did the War against Germany end?

Answer 10

In 1945, due to Germany’s surrender

Question 11

Who were the leaders of the Big three when WW2 ended?

Answer 11

Truman, Stalin and Churchill

Question 12

Why did the Grand Alliance end?

Answer 12

• USA’s testing of Atom bomb on Japan in 1945. Gave them a huge military advantage
• Roosevelt was prepared to work with Stalin, but he died in April 1945 and was replaced by Truman. Truman trusted Stalin much less.
• Stalin disliked the way Truman pushed him about in the Potsdam Conference, thanks to the atomic bomb
• Stalin didn’t do what he was supposed to do in Poland, there was not multiple political parties, just a communist democracy

Question 13

What was a great difference between the USA and USSR that led to a breakdown of trust?

Answer 13

They had opposing ideologies, communism and capitalism

Question 14

What were Capitalist beliefs held by the USA?

Answer 14

• everyone should be free to make money for themselves
• communism enslaved people to the state, and that capitalism was about freedom and democracy

Question 15

What were the communist beliefs held by the USSR?

Answer 15

• capitalism exploited workers to make the rich even richer
• communism was based on fairness
• individuals are not as strong as everyone working together

Question 16

What triggered the Arms Race?

Answer 16

The dropping of the first atomic bomb by the USA, and how Truman was not willing to reveal the technology of it to Stalin, making him suspicious to the West

Question 17

Why did both the USA and USSR have secret reports from their embassies in the form of telegrams?

Answer 17

Truman and Stalin both feared the breakdown of the Grand Alliance and the subsequent threat of a new war

Question 18

What did Kennan, a US ambassador, report to Truman from Moscow in the Long Telegram?

Answer 18

• the Soviet Union saw capitalism as a threat
  to communism that had to be destroyed
• the Soviet Union was building its
  military power
• peace between a communist Soviet Union
  and a capitalist USA was not possible.

Question 19

What did Novikov, a soviet ambassador, in the US tell Stalin in the Novikov telegram?

Answer 19

• the USA wanted world domination and was
  building up its military strength
• the Soviet Union was the only country left
  after the war that could stand up to the USA
• the USA was preparing its people for war
  with the Soviet Union.

Question 20

What did both countries believe following the telegrams?

Answer 20

That there was a great possibility of war

Question 21

What year did the Long and Novikov Telegrams take place?

Answer 21

1946

Question 22

When did the Grand Alliance end?

Answer 22

By the end of 1946

Question 23

Why were Satelite States created?

Answer 23

to respond to the USSR’s nuclear inferiority by strengthening its control over Eastern Europe

Question 24

Name some Eastern European states that the USSR gained control over using salami tactics?

Answer 24

Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania

Question 25

What were salami tactics?

Answer 25

fixing elections then shutting down the opposition (what stalin used in eastern european countries)

Question 26

What happened by 1947 regarding all Eastern European states?

Answer 26

By 1947, all eastern European states apart from Czechoslovakia had communist governments

Question 27

How did the USSR justify its creation of satellite states?

Answer 27

• It had created a buffer zone against the West.
• It was afraid of the USA’s atomic power
• It was afraid of an attack by the West in the near future.

Question 28

What did the USA think of the creation of satellite states?

Answer 28

• As a betrayal of the Yalta agreement, in which Stalin had made promises about holding democratic elections
• Others saw it as evidence of Soviet expansion:Eastern Europe was a stepping-stone to a Soviet takeover of Western Europe.

Question 29

What was the US response to satellite states?

Answer 29

Containing communism through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan