Reasons For The Cold War

Question 1

The Grand Alliance

Answer 1

• 1941-45, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin worked together: USA & Britain provided aid to Soviet Union during operation barbossa in 1941
• 25 April 1945, USA and Soviet forced met in Germany near to Berlin, but Stalin wanted to occupy Berlin before USA, and 70,000 soldiers died because of this order to seize Important military sites in Berlin before the allies
• Relations between USA and Soviet Union returned to state as in 1917 when tsar was overthrown = communist government
• communist vs Capitalist

Question 2

Deteriorating Relations in WW1 and WW2

Answer 2

• October 1917, Bolshevik government = civil war = dropped out of WW1 (treaty with Germany) = angry allies sent opposition to communist government into Russia - allies failed, Soviet thought west were trying to take them down
• allies allowed Hitler to take over Czechoslovakia near Soviet border in 1938
• nazi-Soviet pact to split Poland august 1939, so not until Soviet got invaded 1941 that they United
• delayed opening of second front until1944 to ease pressure in Soviet Union in east, thought allies wanted to weaken them
• August 1945, USA dropped atomic bombs - kept information from Soviet Union until last moment + thought they meant to use it on them

Question 3

Tehran

Answer 3

• November 1943
• open second front - Stalin happy, Churchill disappointed
• Stalin declare war on japan & supply troops to USA after end of European fighting
• future of Germany discussed
• Russian land in Poland from 1939 kept
• laid the group for future UN
• Stalin less paranoid
• tension USA and Britain because of colonialism

Question 4

Yalta

Answer 4

• (February 1945)
• discussed how to end war
• government of post war Europe
• British and American troops pushing back Nazis to Berlin
• Stalin determined to keep territory between Germany and Soviet border as a cushion
• split Germany in 4
• $20 billion reparations, Nazis banned, war criminals punished
• first UN meeting 25 April 1945 - but not all Soviet states individually as Stalin wanted
• Stalin joined war against Japan, 3 months after defeat of Germany
• future government in Eastern Europe would be democratic
• differing opinions on free elections in Poland - communist vs London Poles

Question 5

Potsdam

Answer 5

• (July - August 1945)
• Roosevelt died April 1945 = Harry S Truman, & Churchill lost elections 1945 = Clement Attlee: new to diplomatic discussions
• Germany surrender May 1945, & atomic bomb in America developed but kept from stalin, 51 countries signed UN treaty
• Truman suspicious of Stalin, Attlee didn’t want talks to drag
• Germany and Berlin divided in 4, countries took repartir from own zones
• Eastern Europe & Poland governing disagreed

Question 6

The Atomic Bomb

Answer 6

• 6 august 1945, Hiroshima, 9 august 1945, Nagasaki = 120,000 Japanese’s civilians killed
• argued that USA used atomic bomb to assert over soviet
• Western Europe countries felt secure under USA protection
• Stalin created ‘buffer zone’ of communist countries
• 29 august 1949 soviet atomic bomb
• lead to arms race - each side tried to have more powerful and numerous weapons