Cold War: Early Tensions Between/and/or/in Weat And West

Question 1

Capitalism

Answer 1

Capitalists believed everyone should be free to own property and businesses and make money. The USA’s economic ideology was capitalist.

Question 2

Communism

Answer 2

Communists believe that all property, including homes and businesses, should belong to the state, to ensure that every member of society has a fair share. Communism is based on the writings of Karl Marx and was the political ideology of the Soviet Union.

Question 3

The Grand Alliance

Answer 3

In the Second World War, the Grand Alliance was formed between the USA, the Soviet Union and Britain to defeat Germany and Japan. The leaders of The Grand Alliance nations met three times during the war: at Tehran (1943), Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July 1945).

Question 4

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Answer 4

• Believed strongly in democracy, but compromised for alliance with Stalin
• After Japan bombed USA, Roosevelt thought he needed Soviet support against them
• Not always as tough in negotiations with Stalin as Churchill would have liked
• Believed that any long-term settlement was possible if the Soviet Union was viewed as a superpower/partner in peace.

Question 5

Winston Churchill

Answer 5

Conservative from an aristocratic family, had very traditional values Strongly believed in British Empire, did not want to grant any colonies freedom Suspicious of Stalin. Main job of being in the Grand Alliance was trying to stop Soviet expansion

Question 6

Joseph Stalin

Answer 6

Strengthened one-party rule in the Soviet Union, cut back on people’s individual rights.

Convinced that the West wanted to destroy communism

So had to stand firm in negotiations with Western superpowers

Question 7

What was Aims of the Tehran conference (November-December 1943)

Answer 7

• The USA and Britain agreed to open up a second front by invading
Nazi-occupied Europe.

• 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 the Soviet Union.

• It was also agreed that an international body would be set up to settle future disputes between countries. This set the scene for the establishment of the United Nations.

Question 8

What was The Yalta Conference (February 1945)

Answer 8

• Germany, when defeated, would be reduced in size, divided and demilitarised. It would have to pay reparations.
  • Europe would be rebuilt along the lines of the Atlantic Charter.
• Countries would have democratic elections.
• 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 9

What was The Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945)

Answer 9

• A Council of Foreign Ministers was set up to organise the rebuilding of Europe.
• The Nazi Party was banned and war criminals were to be prosecuted.
• Germany was to be reduced in size and divided into four zones of occupation run by Britain, France, the USA and the Soviet Union.
  • Berlin was also to be divided up into zones of occupation.
• The Soviet Union was to receive 25% of the output from the other three occupied zones.

Question 10

How were US-Soviet in 1945-46

Answer 10

• Stalin wanted control of Eastern Europe to protect the Soviet Union. But Truman believed that Stalin was trying to SPREAD communism. In the years 1945-46, this disagreement and lack of TRUST turned the wartime alliance into peacetime hostility.
• Because of the atomic bomb, Stalin was determined to make the Soviet Union secure. His immediate aim was to create a BUFFER zone of countries that supported communism between Germany and the Soviet Union’s western borders.
• The bomb made Cold War tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union much worse. A war that used atomic weapons could kill millions of people. But, equally, the dangers of using an atomic bomb made both the USA and the Soviet Union try to avoid war. Instead they began an arms RACE, in which each side tried to make sure their nuclear weapons were more powerful than those of their rival.

Question 11

Breakdown of Trust from USA, etc. POV

Answer 11

The USA, Britain and other capitalist countries Said: communism enslaved people to the state. Capitalism was based on freedom and democracy:
• Everyone should be free to make money for themselves.
• Individuals are better at deciding what to make/ sell than the state.
• Trade between countries makes everyone richer.

Question 12

Breakdown of Trust from USSR, etc. POV

Answer 12

The Soviet Union and other communist countries Said: capitalism exploited the workers to make the rich even richer. Communism was based on fairness:
• Capitalism only makes some people rich by exploiting everyone else.
• Individuals are not as strong as everyone working together for the same aim.
• The state should take control of the economy and run it to benefit everyone.

Question 13

The Long Telegram (1946)

Answer 13

A secret report from the US ambassador Kennan in Moscow to President Truman said:
• 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 14

Novikov’s Telegram (1946)

Answer 14

A report from Novikov, Soviet ambassador to the USA, told Stalin that:
• 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 15

What were satellite states

Answer 15

Countries that came under the control of the Soviet Union after the Second World War. These countries (or ‘pawns’) play a major role in future cold war events.

Question 16

Creation of Soviet satellite states

Answer 16

In 1944 and 1945, the Soviet Red Army freed many countries in Eastern Europe from the Nazis. When the war was over, Stalin did not want to give up control of these countries as they were a useful buffer zone between the Soviet Union and Germany. He turned them into satellite states with communist governments.
Truman saw this as evidence that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism worldwide. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union became worse.

Question 17

What was the Cold War?

Answer 17

The term Cold War was first used in 1947 to describe the conflict.
It was a war of words, of propaganda and of threat between the
USA and the USSR, but it did not involve the two Superpowers
in direct confrontation . They both took part in proxy wars – that
is they helped their allies to fight the other Superpower or their
allies but did not become directly involved in the conflict themselves.

Question 18

What was The USSR’s ideology?

Answer 18

The USSR – one party state, no free elections, state owned industry and agriculture. The government planned the economy and what should be produced. There is a lack of freedom and strict censorship

Question 19

What was the USA’s ideology?

Answer 19

The USA – democratic and capitalist, free elections, industry and agriculture were privately owned and run for profit. Free press and freedom of movement.

Question 20

The atom bomb and its consequences.

Answer 20

On 16th August, during the Potsdam Conference, the USA successfully
tested their first A Bomb. Truman informed Stalin about it, but was
not willing to share the technology. This made Stalin even more suspicious of the West and encouraged him to begin an arms race to make the USSR’s weapons equal in force to those of the USA.

Question 21

How were The creation of Satellite States so successful?

Answer 21

• The USSR responded to its nuclear inferiority by strengthening its control over Eastern Europe.
• Rigged elections, violence, intimidation and other methods were used to gain control over Eastern European states including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
• By 1947 all eastern European states apart from Czechoslovakia had communist governments (Czechoslovakia came under communist government in 1948)