Cold War - Early Tension 1943-1946 Flashcards
What were the agreements and disagreements at the Tehran Conference?
- 1st meeting, December 1943
Agreements: - A plan to invade Nazi-occupied Europe was drawn up.
- The Soviets would join the USA’s war against Japan once Hitler has been defeated
There were no disagreements in Tehran.
What were the agreements and disagreements at the Yalta conference?
- 2nd meeting, February 1945, Germany on brink of defeat
Agreements: - Most countries in Eastern Europe would come under Soviet sphere of influence
- Free and fair elections in Nazi liberated countries
- Germany and Berlin would be equally divided into 4 run by USSR, USA, Britain and France
- Reparations to USSR
- USSR joins war against Japan
Disagreements:
- USSR disagreed with the West over the type of government that would take control in Poland
- Stalin wanted to keep control of land on Poland and, although Poland’s borders were discussed, they were not finalised.
What were the agreements and disagreements at the Potsdam conference?
July and August 1945, after Germany defeated
Agreements:
- Plan to divide Germany into 4 was finalised
- Germany would pay reparations to the Allies, most going to USSR as industrial equipment.
Disagreements:
- Stalin wanted to damage Germany, Wear did not want to weaken it too severely
- Stalin reluctant to hold free elections in countries in Eastern Europe in case communist parties loyal to him lost
What were tensions at Potsdam?
- USA and Britain concerned that free and fair elections agreed to at Yalta would never take place (Soviet sphere of influence resulting in communist dictatorships in liberated countries)
- New US President Harry Truman much more anti-communist than Roosevelt
- During the conference, Churchill relaxed as prime minister with Atlee
- USA successfully tested first ever atomic bomb, so they had a significant military advantage over the USSR
- USA and USSR don’t have to work together anymore as no longer a common enemy
What are the features of Capitalism?
- Privately owned businesses
- Freedom to make as much money as possible
- Interference from government kept to a minimum
- Lots of choices in shopsof
- Big difference between rich and poor
What are the features of democracy?
- Free elections with more than one party
- Freedom of speech
- Free press
- More individual rights
What are the features of communism?
- Businesses owned by government
- No private wealth
- Very little choice in shops
- Everyone had similar living standards
What are the features of a dictatorship?
- One party to vote for in elections
- Press is censored
- Individuals have limited rights
- People’s lives monitored by secret police
- Harsh punishments for anyone criticising the government
What was the importance of the atomic bomb in the development of the Cold War?
- Truman didn’t tell his allies that his new bomb was a nuclear bomb
- Stalin’s spies found out which confirmed to him the USA couldn’t be trusted
- Revealed that the USA was determined to be the most powerful post-war country and was now a threat to the USSR.
- Stalin wanted the USSR to develop its own nuclear weapons.
What did the Long Telegram, February 1946, say?
George Kennan, the second in command of the USA Embassy in Moscow, sent a telegram to the USA and in it he said he believed:
- The USSR was determined to spread its ideology as far as possible
- The USSR was an enemy of the USA
- Any attempt at cooperation with the USSR was doomed to failure.
What did the Novikov telegram, September 1946, say?
Nikolai Novikov, the Soviet ambassador in the USA, sent a telegram to Moscow. In it, he said he thought:
- The USA was determined to spread its influence as far as possible
- The USA was economically powerful
- The USA should not be trusted
What was the Iron Curtain and it’s importance?
- Between 1945 and 1948, Stalin gradually ensured that enough people in the governments of the countries in Eastern Europe were communist and loyal to him.
- These countries became the USSR’s satellite states; they seemed like independent countries but were dominated by the USSR.
- The creation of the Eastern Bloc was a key reason for the start of the Cold War. By 1946, the USA committed himself to stopping the spread of communism.
What was the ‘percentages agreement’?
Agreement between Churchill and Stalin after the Tehran conference in December 1943 about how countries in Eastern Europe should be divided between the Soviets and the West after the war.
