Cold war & Superpower relations

Question 1

The grand alliance

Tehran conference (1943)
Yalta conference (1945)
Potsdam conference (1945)

Answer 1

Grand Alliance= Britain, USA & Soviet union created 1941
Tehran= USA and Britain agreed to invade nazi-occupied Europe, Poland would gain territory from Germany and lose territory to the Soviet Union
Yalta= Soviet Union declare war on Japan, Poland would be in the Soviet sphere of influence, UN would be set up
Potsdam= council of foreign ministers was set up to organise the rebuilding of Europe, Nazi party banned, Germany divided into four zones

Question 2

Breakdown of trust

Ideology
Long telegram
Novikov telegram

Answer 2

Ideology= Capitalism vs Communism
Long telegram= secret report from the US ambassador to President Truman: SU saw capitalism as a threat, SU building its military power
Novikov’s telegram: from Soviet ambassador to the USA: USA wanted world domination, USA was preparing for war with Soviet union

Question 2

Satellite states

Impact of the Soviet occupation on superpower relations

Answer 2

USA saw it as a betrayal to the Yalta agreement
USA were determined to contain communism
Soviet argued it needed to control Eastern Europe as a buffer zone, protecting it from attack by the west

Question 3

Truman Doctrine & the Marshall Plan

Answer 3

Truman Doctrine (1947): President Truman set out why he thought USA should get involved in Europe:
Countries must choose ideology, USA must try to contain this spread of communism, USA should provide money & troops

Marshall Plan (Truman planned to send financial aid):
13$b from USA to help rebuild Europe, Pushed people away from communism as they now had money, Sixteen Western European countries took the money, SU criticised as an attack

Question 3

Cominform & Comecon

Answer 3

Cominform (1947)- bureau organised all the communist parties in Europe to make sure they followed Soviet policies, removed any opposition to soviet control in satellite states

Comecon (1949)- encouraged trade between Eastern European countries to remove the attraction of America, prevented Comecon countries signing up to the Marshall plan

Question 4

Significance of NATO (1949) & Warsaw pact (1955)

Answer 4

NATO showed that, after the Berlin Blockade & the Soviet Union’s own development of the atomic bomb, neither the US nor Western Europe were prepared to accept future Soviet aggression
The Warsaw Pact meant there were now two opposing alliances

Question 5

Berlin Blockade & Berlin Airlift

Answer 5

June 1948, the Soviet Union closed all links into West Berlin to block supplies and force western troops out the city
Western powers responded with an airlift. Between 26 June 1948 & 30 September 1949 thousands of tonnes of supplies were flown daily into Berlin

Question 6

MAD & The Nuclear arms

Answer 6

MAD is mutually assured destruction, the idea that a nuclear war would result in the total destruction of both sides

Nuclear arms race:
1945 USA drops two A bombs on Japanese cities
1949- Soviet Union tests its firsr A bomb
1952- USA develops H bomb
1953- Soviet develop H bomb