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