Origins of Cold War 1945-49 Flashcards
When were the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences?
1945
What was the Yalta conference designed to do?
To allow senior figures in the Grand Alliance to co-ordinate military strategy Big 3 (Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill) published the DECLARATION ON LIBERATED EUROPE
What did the DECLARATION ON LIBERATED EUROPE outline?
Plans for post-war Europe
- Set up interim governments in the liberated territories
- Representative governments formed on behalf of ‘all democratic elements’ within the liberated country
- USSR should have a ‘SOI’ in Eastern Europe
- UN established in order to ensure world peace
- Division of Germany, Berlin and Austria into zones of occupation
- Free elections in Eastern Europe
Why was the DECLARATION significant?
Suggested unity between the members of the Grand Alliance
What differences were glossed over in the DECLARATION at Yalta?
-Commitment to set up governments that represented ‘all democratic elements’ = different interpretations in East and West
:WEST=represented a commitment to set up parliamentary democracy similar to that of UK/US
:EAST=represented working on behalf of workers and peasants, a government in which the Communist Party played a leading role
What issues were unable to be resolved at Yalta?
Borders of Germany and Poland
Extent to which defeated powers should pay reparations
Negotiations at Potsdam were:
difficult
Potsdam = problems in reconciling Britain and the USA’s commitment to democracy with the USSR’s demand for a
‘sphere of influence’
Potsdam was significant because, in spite of the growing tensions and severe cooling of relations, it demonstrated that the big three were
willing to work together
What did The Moscow Council of December 1945 agree?
that each major power should have a ‘sphere of influence’
USSR’s SOI =
EASTERN EUROPE
USA’s SOI =
SOUTH AMERICAN PACIFIC, PARTS OF EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
BRITAIN’s SOI =
MEDITERRANEAN, MIDDLE EAST
Why was The Moscow Council of December 1945 significant?
last time on which the Grand Alliance worked effectively
Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech?
1946
What was the Iron Curtain speech?
figurative line that divided communist east from capitalist west in europe
In order to meet soviet expansion, churchill called for an alliance between Britain and America
Influenced Truman’s iron fist approach
Stalin accused Churchill of being a warmonger
Kennan’s Long Telegram?
1946
Argued that the USSR was building up its military power in order to spread communism across Europe
USA should pursue a policy of CONTAINMENT
Highly influenced Truman’s foreign policy
What did Churchill fear that Stalin would do?
Feared that Stalin planned to stir up revolutions across Europe and win power through revolution rather than a traditional military campaign
Truman doctrine
March 1947
What did the Truman doctrine state?
- The world had become bipolar
- USA would fight for freedom wherever it was threatened
- USA would commit economic and military resources to help governments that were threatened by communism
- Communism should be contained
Marshall plan?
June 1947
Marshall plan’s intentions:
-to revive capitalism in Western Europe and in doing so prevent Western Europe from coming under the influence of communism
Marshall plan stated:
- $13 billion to be used to rebuild Europe following WWII
- To qualify for the money, nations must commit themselves to free trade
- The USSR was unable to offer a similar aid package; therefore it exposed the weakness of the USSR economy
Why were the Truman doctrine and the Marshall plan significant?
- demonstrated that the USA’s priority was to rebuild Western Europe and not to co-operate with the USSR
- USSR believed that the Marshall plan was an attempt to divide Europe into ‘two camps’ = dollar imperialism
- USSR pressurised countries in Eastern Europe to reject Marshall aid by offering them the molotov plan of July 1947 instead
- USSR responded with COMINFORM
COMINFORM =
1947
COMINFORM was an organisation controlled by USSR to coordinate
Communist parties throughout Europe - used virulently anti-USA propaganda
Trizonia created in
1948
Czechoslovakian crisis occurred :
1948
Czechoslovakian crisis: Czech communists had taken over with little bloodshed and without direct help from Soviet Union. To west it was evidence of:
Aggressive and expansionist policy
Deutsche Mark was issued in western zones in:
1948
German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and federal republic of Germany (west Germany) created in
1949
Mao establishes People’s Republic of China (communists take over china) in
1949
Soviet Union tests first atomic bomb in
1949
Comecon established in
1949
Comecon was an organisation controlled by the USSR to coordinate economies of the communist countries. It was largely a reaction to Marshall aid. Economic aid = limited but the organisation was able to ensure that a
Stalinist state owned economy was imposed on the countries of Eastern Europe
NATO was established in
1949
NATO stands for:
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NATO = a military alliance of US, Canada and most of Western Europe designed to
Defend west during Cold War
Berlin Blockade occurred:
1948-49
Berlin airlift occurred in
1948
Berlin airlift was significant for 3 reasons:
- Demonstrated the commitment of the US to fighting communism in Western Europe
- Humiliated Stalin - forcing him to back down and the blockade
- Showed that Stalin was unwilling to engage the US in military conflict
The failure of the Berlin Blockade also forced Stalin to recognise that
he could not prevent the division of Germany
US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945
The pressure on the US government to adopt a more hard-line approach had been building since the end of 1945, 3 factors emphasised this:
1-‘long telegram’
2-iron curtain speech
3-actions of USSR
Evidence of what the West saw as Soviet expansion was:
Events in Greece 1947
(Greek civil war) Greece was an area of British influence and Stalin kept to this agreement, as a result he did
nothing to directly help the Greek communists, although the communist governments of Yugoslavia and Albania did send aid - West became convinced that this was another sign of Soviet expansion
The Truman Doctrine stated that the USA would:
aid any country or government under attack by armed minorities.
The Truman Doctrine was aimed at:
preventing the spread of communism
The Truman Doctrine was used to:
send aid and military advisers to Greece to help the monarchist government against the communists
American aid and military advisers were sent to support the royalist government in Greece, and the communist insurrection there was defeated. To Stalin this was evidence of
American Imperialism
Marshall plan committed large sums of American financial assistance to
Europe
The motives behind Marshall aid were:
-To prevent the danger of economic recession in the US,
Without financial assistance, Europe would not be able to act as a market for American goods
-Political consideration, poverty = ideal breeding ground for communism
Conditions of the marshall aid - providing economic records and opening up their economy to American capitalist interests - were such that it was impossible for
communist states to do so without a fundamental change to their system
Soviet Union view Marshall aid as nothing more than an attack on communism. Molotov condemned it as foreign interfernece in the states of Europe and labelled the plan
dollar imperilaism
Under soviet pressure the countries of eastern europe declined
marshall aid
USSR effectively declared war on the marshall plan by tightening up their hold over Eastern Europe through the setting up of
Cominform 1947
Comecon 1949
Comecon:
An organisation controlled by the USSR to coordinate the economies of communist countries - economic aid limited
Comecon ensured that a stalinist state-owned economy was imposed on the countries of
Eastern Europe
Czechoslovakian crisis 1948, failure to receive marshall aid was blamed on communists in the coalition government. Before election - communists staged a coup d’etat:
- Police force taken over by the communists and purged of non-communist personnel
- Non-communist party representatives were removed from government
- Jan Masaryk suffered defenestration (thrown out of window)
- President Benes forced to resign
- Communist Gottwald = president
The Czechoslovakian crisis was of psychological significance for the west. in addition to increasing the fear of communist expansion, it played on
feelings of guilt - particular;y in Britain
Causes of the Berlin Blockade:
- seeds of dispute had been laid by the arrangements for the city agreed at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences
- western zones (UK, US, France) benefited from marshall aid, eastern zone had been plundered for its resources by USSR
- Eastern zones, living conditions remained low and were slow to recover
- Clear difference in living standards; west Berlin = prosperous capitalism
- Council of Foreign Ministers, which had been attempting to agree to a system of administration for Berlin, broke up without agreement (Dec 1947)
- Feb 1948, US,UK,France began talks on the administration of Western Germany - decision to establish a separate West German state in June
- Western powers = Deutsche Mark
Deutsche Mark, was hoped to provide economic stability and aid recovery. It was a symbol of the
growing prosperity of the Western sectors compared with the East - last straw for Stalin
24 June 1948 - Stalin took action and severed
all road, rail and canal links with West Berlin
NATO = an enlargement of the Brussels Treaty of 1949, which had been signed by UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, to establish
military cooperation in the event of war
NATO = significant because:
it involved US in a military alliance in peacetime
made clear to the USSR that there would be no return to isolationism
Guiding principle of NATO =
attack on one of its members = attack on all
NATO was a defensive organisation to protect the West and its
interests
Stalin viewed NATO as a deliberate provocative action, but he was able to enhance the capability of the USSR by
breaking the American nuclear monopoly
USSR exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949 - earlier than the
west had expected
Despite the increase in USSR power (a-bomb) the Berlin crisis, the formation of NATO had
taken the initiative in Cold War relations away from the USSR
Significant result of the Berlin crisis =
end to any hope of an agreement between East and West over Germany
Permanent division of Germany in 1949:
Federal Republic of Germany (West)
German Democratic Republic (East)
