Origins Of Cold War

Question 1

What is the Grand alliance?

Answer 1

3 countries (USSR, Britain and USA) join together to defeat the common enemy= Nazi Germany

Question 2

Why was there a distrust between the Big Three?

Answer 2

•different ideologies
•Russia withdrew from WW1, abandoned allies
•Russian revolution= USA + UK fought the communists
•Nazi soviet pact= agreement not to attack each other/ 1/2 of Poland

Question 3

What was agreed in Yalta? (1945)

Answer 3

•Germany would be - in size, divided, demilitarised
•£20 bill in reparation= 1/2 USSR
•UN would be set up
•USSR war with Japan after Germany
•TENSION: Poland in ‘sphere of influence’ + democratic gov.

Question 4

What did Churchill want?

Answer 4

•stop soviet expansion
•deeply sus of communism and Stalin and didn’t want to compromise

Question 5

What did FDR want?

Answer 5

•held GA together
•prepared to work with USSR + allied with Stalin
•need to accept USSR as superpower
•build trade

Question 6

What did Stalin want?

Answer 6

•secure eastern border + expand influence
•prevent any future attack on them
•mistrust with the west + capitalists

Question 7

Why were Truman and Attlee important in the growing tension?

Answer 7

•both not involved in Yalta
•Truman was more anti communist and tried to bully Stalin with US power
•both concerned with expansion
•Attlee wanted to make Germany safe from USSR aggression

Question 8

What was agreed on at Potsdam? (1945)

Answer 8

•council of Foreign ministers to rebuild Europe
•Nazi party ban + war criminals prosecuted
•Germany/Berlin divided into 4 zones of occupation
•USSR receive 25% output from other 3 zones

Question 9

How did Truman use the atomic bomb?

Answer 9

•Japan surrendered 110,000 killed
•balance of world power shifted in favour of USA
•Truman delayed Potsdam until bomb ready to scare Stalin

Question 10

What were the consequences of the bomb?

Answer 10

•Stalin determined to secure USSR = ‘buffer’ of pro communist
•technological rivalry
•reluctant to go war as bomb= destructive

Question 11

What happened to Germany following end of war?

Answer 11

•4 zones of occupation + Berlin 1/4
•German £ managed as a whole
•reparations by labour and goods
:
USA wanted its recovery
USSR wanted to punish it

Question 12

What did Stalin do/use to expand into Eastern Europe?

Answer 12

•rigged/fixed elections
•Soviet Red Army in control
•secret police
•loyal communists who forced a single party state by force and fear

Question 13

How did some Eastern European countries become communist?

Answer 13

•Bulgaria: elected non communists killed
•Poland: arrested non communists so communists ‘won’ elections
•Hungary: Rakosi used secret police to execute and imprison opponents
•Czechoslovakia; communists took control of army, radio and secret police

Question 14

What were the consequences of eastern expansion?

Answer 14

•iron curtain speech: saw USSR as a threat to world peace and freedom
•Novikov telegram told USSR that USA was preparing for war

Question 15

What was the purpose of the Truman Doctrine? (1947)

Answer 15

•containment of communism as it was seen as attractive across poor countries and bc of domino effect
•USA should give £ + troops
•too poor to fight communist revolutions e.g Greece and Turkey

Question 16

What was the Marshall plan? (1947)

Answer 16

•£13 billion aid to rebuild, stabilise and unify Europe
•capitalist system provide for ppl
•countries must trade with USA for help
•16 west countries e.g France

Question 17

What was cominform? (1947)

Answer 17

•got rid of opposition to USSR’s control
•encouraged communist parties in west Europe to block Marshall plan aid

Question 18

What was the USSR’s alternative to Marshall Plan?

Answer 18

COMECON: (1949)
•trade links between comecon countries
•prevented comecon c signing for Marshall plan

Question 19

Why did Yugoslavia become the only communist state outside the iron curtain?

Answer 19

•communist uprising (Tito) with no ties to Stalin
•Tito’s approached USA for Marshall plan aid = direct challenge to Stalin who expelled them from Cominform as it made communism look weak + threatened to increase US influence in east

Question 20

What is dollar imperialism?

Answer 20

Stalin’s belief that America was using £ to take control of Europe

Question 21

Why did Stalin set up a Berlin Blockade? (1948)

Answer 21

•uniting zones: broke agreements and threat
•new currency but Stalin wanted to cripple Germany
•Trizonia was wealthy and prosperous

Question 22

What were the outcomes of the Berlin blockade?

Answer 22

•Berlin airlift: peaceful show of US power e.g plane every 3 min with 4000 tonnes of supplies/day
•propaganda victory for capitalist/USA
•division between west/east (FDR)/(GDR)