EUROPE 1945 - 2001 COLD WAR Flashcards
Percentages Agreement
Informal agreement between Stalin and Churchill
Outlined British and Soviet ‘spheres of influence’
Idea that Europe would be divided endured, underpinning the Cold War and possibly contributing to the stability between the 2 superpower rivals
Open Door
FDR’s foreign policy for the post-war
Idea that the best way to prevent future war was to have the world based on free trade and equal access to raw materials
Less likely to go to war as they are reliant on other countries for certain goods and resources
Yalta Conference
February 1945
Defeat of Germany in sight, 3 allied powers met to decide on the fate of post war Europe
Germany would be divided temporarily into zones of UK, US, and USSR occupation
Poland’s borders readjusted
Churchill and FDR accused of ‘signing away’ Europe
Potsdam Conference
July - August 1945
To formalize issues raised during the Yalta Conference
Germany separated into 4 occupation zones
Reparations deal also settled
Arguments over the political future of Poland, but Poland’s new borders were agreed upon
UK and US wanted free elections to be held in Poland
‘Big Three’ established a Council of Foreign Ministers to continue discussions on issues
Nuclear Age Begins
1945
SHARE TECHNOLOGY
- Soviets would work to find out anyway
- keeping the bomb a secret would make the Soviets more suspicious
KEEP TECHNOLOGY
- US developed technology, had the right to keep it a secret
Long Telegram
1946
George Kennen was deputy chief as the US embassy in the Soviet Union
Described dealing with communism as ‘greatest task our diplomacy has ever faced and probably greatest it will ever have to face’
Soviets didn’t see the possibility for long-term peaceful coexistance with the capitalist world
Article X
July 1947
Article written by George Kennen
‘Iron Curtain’ or ‘Sinews of Peace’
5 March 1946
A speech by Winston Churchill
First use of the expression of ‘Iron Curtain’ to describe the totalitarian control the USSR was imposing on the Eastern European countries it had occupied after the war
Truman Doctrine
12 March 1947
Marked the formal abandonment of America’s traditional policy of ‘isolationism’
Communism needed to be actively countered to prevent its spread
US prepared to involve itself in conflicts in other countries if communism was threatening to take over
Marshall Plan
April 1947
US wanted to reconstruct European economy to prevent conditions for totalitarian takeover and also essential to American economic prosperity
Marshall plan committed the US to ‘nothing less than the reconstruction of Europe’
Berlin Blockade
24 June 1948 - 12 May 1949
Soviets were still trying to prevent German reconstruction and the US were trying to help West Germany.
Soviet’s blocked all West entrance into West Berlin
US and UK flew in all the supplied that were needed to keep the population of West Berlin alive
Formation of NATO
4 April 1949
A treaty between Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, UK, US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.
An attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all members, and the other NATO members are required to respond as they see fit (politically, militarily etc.)
Formation of the Federal Republic of Germany
23 May 1949
FRG came into existence 4 days after the blockade
Formation of the German Democratic Republic
October 1949
COMECON
January 1949
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
Sought to bind those countries in the Soviet Bloc economically tightly to the USSR
Intended to coordinate industrial development in the Soviet Bloc and prevent trade with the US
