KQ4: Who was to blame for the Cold War (Mine)

How Poland became Communist control

• Soviet troops remained after liberation

• New government formed in June 1945 dominated by “Lublin” Poles

• Opposition leader arrested and murdered

• Rigged elections in 1947 gave communists 80% of the vote

How Czechoslovakia became communist controlled

• Soviet troops left after the war

• Post-war elections gave communists leadership of a balanced, coalition government

• Foreign Minister Jans Masaryk a popular and non-communist politician, murdered in May 1947

• Gradually assumed control of key government ministries allowing them to arrest political opponents

How Hungary became communist controlled

• Soviet troops remained after liberation

• Used secret police to discredit and persecute rival politicians and parties

• Rigged elections in 1947 gave communists control of a coalition government

• Social Democratic Party and Communist Party

Truman Doctrine ( March 1947)

• open-ended commitment to protect free nations from aggressive neighbours

• It was first applied in the Greek Civil War

Marshall Aid (June 1947)

• Lasted 4 years

• A total of 13.3 billion spent

• 16 countries accepted this help

• It helped to boos the US trade markets, as well as preventing the spread of communism

Cominform (September 1947)

• Set up by the USSR to ensure all the communist parties of eastern and western Europe followed the Soviet model of communism

• Made in response of Marshal Aid

• maintain the unity of the assembled nations under Moscow’s control

What is meant by an ‘iron curtain’ 

• A speech by Churchill in Fulton, Missouri, USA

• On March 1946

• Churchill was describing the situation in Europe between allies

• Implied the relationship between allies has broken down

What was Operation Vittles

• It lasted 11 months

• Brought over two million tons of cargo to Berlin ( coal, food, petrol)

• It was the response to the Berlin Blockade

• It ran through Tempelhof airport

• Planes landed every two minutes

Why did Stalin set up the Berlin Blockade

• It was response to the Trizonia and introducing their new currency

• He wanted to kick out the other Allies out of his section of Germany

• Wanted to punish Germany and keep it as a buffer zone

• Stalin believed the US were using the Marshall Aid to gain control of Germany

Why was the Warsaw Pact formed (14 May 1955)

• Eight communist countries agreed in Poland to unify their armed forces under a central command

• It was a direct response of the rearmament of West Germany

What was agreed at Yalta Conference ( (YCRS) February 1945

• Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan after Germany was defeated

• Germany and its capital to be divided into four zones of occupation

• Free elections in all countries freed from Nazi occupation

• All agreed to join the UN after the war to keep the peace

What was discussed, in relation to Poland, at the Yalta Conference?

• A provisional government would be established incorporating members of the pro- Soviet ‘‘Lublin’’ government and the exiled ‘‘London’’ Poles who fled from the German and Soviet armies in 1939

• Free and fair multi-party elections would be held as soon as possible

• Stalin anted to draw the Polish government further west and to ensure a ‘‘friendly’’ on his border

• Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to draw Stalin’s borders as he wanted

What were the agreements at Potsdam Conference July 1945 (PSTA) ?

• Polish/German border would be settled at the Oder-Neisse line

• Germany would be denazified and war crimes were o be held in Germany and Japan

• The Council of Foreign Ministers (CRM) would be established to deal with the defeated European countries

• Free German elections

What was the disagreements at Potsdam Conference July 1945 (PSTA) ?

• Truman rejected the idea of Stalin gaining a foothold in Japan

• USSR wanted access to Germany’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr- which was rejected

• size of reparations Germany ought to pay

• Russia’s influence over countries in Eastern Europe

Reasons for Tension in Potsdam

• Stalin broke agreements made in Yalta; wasn’t holding free elections

• Truman was anti- communist and didn’t trust Stalin , he was also unexperienced

• Lack of trust

  • Truman hid the Manhattan Project from Stalin but Stalin used espionage to find out

USSR was to blame/ USA was to blame

• USA to blame

  • antagonises USSR, Marshall aid preventing spread of communism

  • US policy was influenced by important personalities; Truman aggressive in his dealings with Molotov

• USSR to blame

  • Stalin broke agreements made in Yalta; didn’t hold free elections and installed communist governments in Poland

  • Creation of Cominform; intended to undermine capitalist society

What was Kennan’s Long telegram

22nd February 1946, Kennan sent his 8,000 word Long Telegram to the U.S. State Department, outlining his views on Soviet foreign policy

What was the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

• On May 1949, the formal political unifications of the western took place with the creation of the FRG

• In August 1949, Konrad Adenaur became the first chancellor of FDR

• Occupying power still control West Germany’s foreign policy until 1951, when the West German Foreign Office was created

• West Berlin was not part of West Germany anymore and Britain, French and American forces remained there

What was the German Democratic Republic (GDR): East Germany

• Soviets reacted swiftly to the changing situation in Germany

• In October 1949, Soviets created GDR (East Germany) based on the People’s Council formed in 1948 in the Soviet zone

• East Berlin was part of East Germany and became the country’s capital

• All positions in the New State were in the hands of the communist Socialist Unity Party (SED) created in 1946 by the forced merger of the Social Democratic Party and German Communist Party in the Soviet Zone