How did the USA react to Soviet expansion?

Question 1

How did the Western Powers feel about Stalin’s actions?

Answer 1

• Very alarmed
• Roosevelt (deceased) and Churchill had accepted that Soviet security needed friendly governments in eastern Europe
• Agreed it would be a Soviet ‘sphere of influence’ and that Stalin would heavily influence this region
• However, they hadn’t expected such complete communist domination

Question 2

What type of governments did the Western Powers want Eastern Europe to have?

Answer 2

Governments that were both democratic and friendly to the USSR.

Question 3

The story of Greece, 1940s

Answer 3

• When the Germans retreated from Greece in 1944, there were two rival groups - the monarchists and the communists - who wanted to rule the country
• Both had been involved in resistance against the Nazis

Question 4

What did the communists want Greece to be?

Answer 4

A Soviet Republic

Question 5

What did the monarchists want in Greece?

Answer 5

The return of the king of Greece

Question 6

What did Churchill do?

Answer 6

• He sent British troops to Greece in 1945 to supposedly help restore order and supervise free elections
• In fact, the British supported the monarchists and the king was returned to power

Question 7

What did the USSR do in 1946?

Answer 7

• Protested to the United Nations that British troops were a threat to peace in Greece

Question 8

What’s the difference b/w the UN and NATO?

Answer 8

• NATO is an organisation designed to fight war, if necessary, in order to defend peace
• U.N. is an organisation designed to avoid war in order to maintain peace