Key Issue 4 Flashcards
Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945?
- Removal of the common enemy
- Ideological differences
- History of hostility
- The USSR in world affairs
Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945? - removal of the common enemy
There was no longer a common enemy, Germany, and so need for the Allied cooperation which had been extensive during war
Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945? - ideological differences
The ideological differences between the USA and the USSR began to re-emerge
The US followed a democratic, capitalist approach
The USSR followed a communist ideology
This made it difficult to build up trust between the two
Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945? - history of hostility
Stalin was also not invited to the Munich conference
There was a long history of mistrust going back to 1918 and the intervention of the West in Russian Civil War against the Bolsheviks.
In the 1930s Stalin thought that the West saw Hitler and the Nazis as the buffer against the spread of communism.
Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945? - the USSR in world affairs
It was obvious that the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence was growing.
Stalin was included with other European leaders in important conferences at Yalta and Potsdam
What were the issues to be addressed at Yalta and Potsdam?
- what to do with a defeated Germany and its leaders
- what to do with countries formerly occupied by Germany
- to decide the future of Poland
- how war with Japan could be ended as soon as possible
- to discuss how a lasting peace was to be maintained
When was the Yalta Conference?
February 1945
What was decided at Yalta on the issue of “what to do with a defeated Germany”?
- Surrender was to be unconditional
- Germany and its capital Berlin were to be temporarily divided into four occupation zones
- Germany’s eastern border was to be moved westwards
- War criminals were to be hunted down and punished
- Germany had to pay reparations
What was decided at Yalta on the issue of “what to do with countries formerly occupied by Germany”?
Following liberation they were to be allowed to hold free elections to decide how they were to be governed
What was decided at Yalta on the issue of “the future of Poland”?
- A provisional government was to be established comprising of pro-Soviet Lublin Poles and exiled London Poles who had fled in 1939
- Poland’s border was to be moved westwards into German territory
- Free elections were to be held
What was decided at Yalta on the issue of “how war against Japan could be ended”?
- Stalin agreed to intervene in the war against Japan after Germany was defeated
- In return Russia was to receive land in Manchuria and territory lost to Japan during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War
What was decided at Yalta on the issue of “how a lasting peace was to be maintained”?
An organisation to be known as the United Nations was to be set up
What changed between the Yalta and Potsdam conference in the US?
President Roosevelt died and was replaced by Truman.
Truman was strongly anti-communist but inexperienced in international affairs
What changed between the Yalta and Potsdam conference in Britain?
Churchill’s Conservative Party was defeated in a general election.
He was replaced by Labour leader Clement Attlee
What changed between the Yalta and Potsdam conference in the Soviet Union?
The Soviet Union had liberated eastern Europe and was installing sympathetic governments
They failed to hold “free” elections
On the eve of Potsdam, Truman informed Stalin that the United States had successfully tested an atomic weapon
