Unit 1 Flashcards
What were the aims of Roosevelt in the post war world?
Post war reconstruction with unity amongst the victorious nations.
What did Stalin want the post war world to be like?
Security through a network of of Eastern European allies.
When was the Yalta Conference?
4-11th February 1945
What did the Yalta conference represent and what did it show and what were they committed to?
Inter allied cooperation and showed the grand alliance was alive and well and its members were committed to international agreements in the post war world.
What were 3 conflicting objectives that the East and West hadn’t agreed on?
West- Collective security founded in the United Nations
East- The USSR wants to be in control of its own destiny
West- Germany’s reconstruction and re-education as a democratic nation
East- Germany should be economically weak for the future
West- right to national self determination but no spheres of influence
East- Security guaranteed through soviet spheres of influence in Europe
What were the 5 things agreed in Yalta?
Germany into 4 zones
Berlin into 4 zones
The UN formed
The declaration of liberated Europe to be created
USSR would gain land in Poland and Poland was expanded to north and west
Why was the Yalta conference good?
It was optimistic
showed cooperation and clear agreement between east and west
Why was the Yalta conference bad?
The relations between West and East were deteriorating.
What were the consequences for Soviets after WWII?
25 million soviets dead. mass destruction to towns cities, agriculture and industry
What was Stalin priority after WWII?
Lasting security
What did Stalin and his forgein minister believe about the Grand Alliancde? What did Stalin do about this?
Vyacheslav Molotov viewed Soviets Grand alliance allies as anti-USSR
Stalin still continued open cooperation with the West.
What were Stalin’s priorates in Europe?
Eastern European countries come under the Soviet spheres of influence.
Germany a communist state in the future . The dismemberment didn’t bother Soviet. Germany had to be kept economically weak until it could be a communist state.
What did Roosevelt want for the world and how would this be reflected?
A lasting post war settlement on the certainty that it would reflect the American concept of democracy.
Why was Roosevelt willing to work with Stalin?
He believed that the security that the USSR wanted could be achieved at what was agreed at Yalta.
What was Roosevelt convinced him and Stalin shared?
The same understand and values of the post war world.
What 2 thing was Roosevelt certain he could achieve in the post war world?
A democratic and non-communist future for Eastern Europe
international affairs could be dealt with the international peace keeping organisation
Why was Roosevelt criticised?
He underestimated the security needs of the Soviet Union of Eastern Europe.
What was Churchill convinced Stalin wanted to do?
expand into post war Europe
What did he write to his foreign secetary?
April 1944 to Anthony Eden he wrote he tried to sympathise with the soviets and he doesn’t trust them
What did Churchill believe the Soviet Union could threaten?
British imperial interests
How did Britain try and protect their imperial interetes?
strengthening ties with US
percentages agreement
Why did Britain urgently react against the USSR?
Due to their economic impact because of the war
When did Britain sign the percentages agreement?
October 1944
What did the percentages agreement establish/
A percentage of predominance Britain and the USSR would have in Eastern Europe.
What problems arose about the declaration of liberated Europe?
How it was to be interpreted and applied in Poland. Stalin viewed that a communist government should stay in place whilst Roosevelt said the opposite.
When was the Potsdam Conference?
17th July- 1 August 1945
Who was replaced and why?
Roosevelt died in April and was replaced by his vice President Harry S Truman.
Churchill who initially attended had lost the general election was replaced by Clement Attlee on July 26th.
What happened a day before the Potsdam conference?
The US atomic bomb was dropped
Why was the atomic bomb dropped?
Truman wanted to ensure that Stalin stuck with what he agreed to in Yalta.
What was Potsdam characterised by?
Trumans diplomatic leverage over Stalin and Stalin and his minister not being intimated by its nuclear monopoly.
What did Stalin accuse Truman of?
Using atomic diplomacy with its dealings with the USSR.
What were the downsides of the Potsdam conference?
It made no significant medium to long term plan for Germany’s future.
What were the 6 things agreed at Potsdam?
Germany would be disarmed and de-militarised.
De-Nazification was to be carried out.
Decentralisation of the political system was to be undertaken and local responsibility taken.
freedom of speech and freedom of press and religious tolerance restored
-Germany would be a single economic unit with common policies on industry and finance
-USSR would receive reparations from its own zone and 25% from its Western zones.
What didn’t 3 things didn’t Potsdam do?
Nothing to reinforce the idea of international cooperation aimed at reconstructing a long term future for post war Europe
Didn’t lay foundations for a non confrontational relationship between east and west
It failed to address the growing tensions between USSR and USA.
What did 3 things did Truman want in the post war world.
National self determination. Open world trading system through international cooperation.
Economic reconstruction through the creation of IMF and the World Bank
Why Truman want 3 things in the post war world and how would it protect the US
It would stop the USA returning to the Great Depression
It would protect the USA’s geostrategic interests by limiting the movement of other states like USSR
What approach did Truman take on the USSR which was different to Roosevelt.
Confrontation rather than cooperation
What did Truman use that he hoped would ensure Stalin’s coperation over?
nuclear technology to ensure stalins cooperation over creating Eastern European states communist
What did Truman fear the Soviet Union were doing?
removing anti-communist leaders and a rise of pro-communist provisional governments
What did the US ambassador to Moscow warn?
The effects of Soviet expansion as ‘barbarian invasion of Europe’ but there was still time for agreements
What did Truman slowly start to believe the Soviets didn’t want.
They didn’t want a diplomatic solution.
What did Stalin believe the US and the USSR were?
Potential rivals for the dominance of Europe.
What did Stalin do in Eastern Europe when he realised the USA were rivals to Europe?
The Red Army’s continued presence in Europe.
The intensification of of the programme of installing pro-communist regimes in liberated states.
What did Stalin do when the time for cooperation passed?
He accepted what was agreed in Germany. But had an unspoken alternative for the rest of Europe.
What did Stalin need to ensure Eastern European states did?
Form the basis of long term Soviet security system
How did Stalin get Eastern European states to bring USSR long term security.
Comparable economic and political systems to the USSR.
Unity and common identity
What did Stalin see USA agenda as?
Anti-USSR
What did the events since Yalta confirm to Britain?
Stalin was an expansionist in Europe.
What was it important for the US to defend?
The Western Zones from any Soviet threat.
What was British foreign policy?
Anti communist Soviet stance.
Did Attlee support the Potsdam agreement?
He supported it but new it would weaken Germany. He was concerned their were no future long term plan for Germany.
Why was it urgent for Britain to take an Anti-Soviet foreign policy?
Because Stalin hadn’t implemented the agreements at Yalta and the declaration of liberated Europe made at Yalta
