Yalta and Potsdam (S1.1) Flashcards
Conflicting ideologies, tensions at Yalta/Potsdam, relations between the Big Three
1
Q
What were Capitalist worldviews?
A
- Individual liberty
- Equality of opportunity but not equality of outcome
- Free market economy, minimal state interference
2
Q
What were Communist worldviews, in relation to Marx, Lenin and Stalin?
A
- Karl Marx, founding father
- Believed capitalism led to the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie to ensure economic dominance and political control
- Lenin modified Marxist thinking through Leninism (authoritarian)
- Stalin modified Leninism and developed the ‘cult of personality’; became obsessed with power and influence
3
Q
What did FDR and Churchill want at the Yalta Conference? (February 1945)
A
- Collective security founded on the United Nations
- Long-term cooperation with the USSR
- Right to national self-determination, no spheres of influence
- Reconstruction and re-education of Germany democratically
- World economic reconstruction through the IMF / World Bank
4
Q
What did Stalin want at the Yalta Conference? (February 1945)
A
- USSR to be in control of its own destiny
- Cooperation with US / UK
- USSR security guaranteed through Soviet spheres of influence
- Germany to remain weak indefinitely
- Economic reconstruction of the USSR, at Germany’s expense
5
Q
What was decided at Yalta in February 1945?
A
- Germany divided into four zones, each administered by an allied power
- Berlin similarly divided
- UN formally ratified
- USSR gained land from Poland, but Poland expanded in the north and west
- Declaration on Liberated Europe (peace, aid, free and fair elections)
6
Q
What did Stalin think and want personally?
A
- 27,000,000 Soviet soldiers and civilians died due to WWII, as well as mass destruction of towns and cities, agriculture and industry
- Lasting security became a supreme objective for Stalin
- Stalin and Molotov saw the allies as fundamentally anti-USSR
- Still wanted to keep cooperation with the West
- Wanted to ensure EEU lay within a Soviet sphere of influence
- Wanted to turn Germany completely communist eventually, yet keep it economically weak until then
7
Q
What did FDR think and want personally?
A
- Wanted to keep cooperation as the basis for a lasting post-war settlement
- Roosevelt was certain he could secure a democratic (therefore non-communist) future for the EEU and believed in the UN
8
Q
What did Churchill think at Yalta in terms of Stalin?
A
Convinced that it was Stalin’s intention to expand Soviet power into post-war Europe
9
Q
What was the “percentages agreement”? (October 1944)
A
- Oct 1944 “percentages agreement” between Churchill/Stalin; established the percentage of predominance Britain and the USSR would have in each Eastern Europe state (i.e. USSR had 90% of Romania, UK had 90% of Greece, Hungary was 50/50)
10
Q
What was agreed at Potsdam? (July-August 1945)
A
- Germany was to be completely disarmed and demilitarised, as well as denazification (war crimes judged, all former nazi party members removed, education purged of all nazi influences)
- Decentralisation of political system undertaken (devolution), centralised the economy and industry
- Freedom of speech / free press / religious tolerance restored
- USSR to receive reparations from own zone, and additional 25% from Western zones
11
Q
What did Truman think and want at Potsdam?
A
- Wanted a post-war world based on self-determination, an open trading system on international economic cooperation, and the creation of the IMF / World Bank, reducing the risk of another Great Depression
- Came to regard confrontation rather than cooperation as the basis for relations with Stalin; hoped atomic diplomacy world work
- Feared growth of Soviet power and the uprise of communism; became increasingly convinced the USSR was not receptive to diplomatic solutions and may need force to ensure compliance
12
Q
What did Stalin think and want at Potsdam?
A
- Convinced the US and allies were rivals for dominance in Europe
- Obsession with Soviet security and installed pro-communist regimes in liberated states
- Needed to ensure that EEU states formed the basis of the USSR’s long term security system; strength through unity and a common identity
13
Q
What did Attlee think and want at Potsdam?
A
- Confirmed to Britain that Stalin was expansionist
- Foreign policy clearly anti-communist
- Unhappy that there was no long-term solution in Germany
14
Q
What influence did Hiroshima and Nagasaki have on US/USSR relations?
A
- Increased Tensions
Heightened Soviet suspicions and fears; perceived the bomb as a demonstration of American military power. - Atomic Diplomacy
The U.S. attempted to use the bomb as a diplomatic toolto assert dominance over the USSR and influence post-war negotiations, further straining relations. - Soviet Nuclear Program Acceleration
Prompted the Soviet Union to accelerate its own nuclear weapons program, leading to an arms race that characterized much of the Cold War.
15
Q
What were the aims of the USSR at Potsdam, in terms of Germany?
A
- Sought a Germany which could never again act as a threat to the USSR (invaded thrice through Poland from Germany before); pro-Soviet buffer zone
- 27 million Soviet lives lost; Stalin demanded $10 billion in reparations; dismantling of infrastructure in the East and moved to the USSR
- Establishment of a unified, weak Germany to continue good relations with the US
