US, British and USSR relations in 1945

Who were the leading capitalist democracies when the Second World War broke out?

USA & Britain

What is the fundamental belief with American capitalism?

Individual’s fundamental right to liberty

For the USA, what did Liberty mean?

• every citizen should have equal opportunities but not necessarily equal outcomes

• free market economies

• economic emphasis was on the need for individual freedom, in order to achieve economic growth and personal happiness, without state control undermining the process

• enshrined political freedom in the right of every citizen - free elections

What is a free market economy?

an economic system in which the prices of goods are set by the forces of supply and demand, and competition is allowed through minimal interference by the state

• USA - businesses would compete and this competition benefitted everyone

Who is the proletarian?

the proletarian class were the workers, but they owned very little; they were the exploited majority and were able to rise against their oppressors

Who is the bourgeoisie?

communists used this term to signify the class in society that controlled the means of production and distribution; this gave them power to exploit the masses of workers

Who was the founding father of communist ideology?

Karl Marx

• believed that capitalism let to the exploitation of the proletarian majority by the ruling bourgeoisie

• done in order to strengthen the bourgeoisie’s economic dominance

• enable the bourgeoisie to maintain its political control

What did the Russian Revolution of 1917 result in?

The creation of the first communist state in the world - led by Lenin

How did Lenin modify Marxism?

Established Leninism as the means by which Marxism would be transformed into a practical reality rather than a theory

How did Lenin want Leninism to look like?

dictatorship of the proletariat as the first step towards the creation of a socialist society

How was Leninism authoritarian?

It demanded rule by a relatively small workers’ elite or workers vanguard, exercised by the Communist party on behalf of the proletariat

When Stalin established his role as the leader of the USSR how did he modify Leninism?

to suit his own ends

• developed the ‘cult of personality’ - promoted himself as the infallible interpreter of communist ideology

• became obsessed with protecting his own power and the machinery of the state that guarded it

mind-set was easily translated into a fundamental influence on Stalin’s foreign policy thinking in 1945

How were Capitalism and Communist conflicting ideologies?

• certainty from each side that they should dominate in as many other nations as possible

• each viewed expansion as the other as a threat

• both the communist East and capitalistic West saw the need to expand its own power - global aspirations

Ideological conviction and a desire for national security through increased global influence became driving obsession for each side

What was the Grand Alliance?

1945 - ‘marriage of convivence’

• Britain, USA and the USSR against Nazi Germany

What did the Western powers open?

‘second front’ - 1944

Anglo-American military campaign to liberate France and invade Nazi Germany during World War II

• invading Nazi-occupied France

• Nazi regime began to face impossible pressure

• Soviet forces swept into Poland during August 1944

• Early 1945, Soviet western front stretched from the Baltic to the Carpathian Mountains - by March 1945 they had crossed the Oder River

What were the Western powers conscious of?

Many Eastern European states had been liberated from Nazi occupation by the USSR

• Roosevelt was committed to post-war reconstruction was based on unity among the victorious powers

• However, Stalin’s guarantee of security through a network of Eastern European allies was in fundamental conflict with this view

Difference was the focus of tensions between East and West in the weeks leading up to the Yalta Conference

What was the Yalta Conference, 4-11 February 1945 represent?

Conference represented the high point of inter-allied cooperation

• outcomes appeared to reaffirm the belief that the Grand Alliance was still alive and well

• members were committed to a lasting consensus in international relations in the post-war world

When was the Yalta Conference?

4-11th February 1945

Who attended the Yalta Conference?

• Stalin (USSR)

• Roosevelt (USA)

• Churchill (Britian)

What is meant by collective security?

the principle whereby states would cooperate with each other as a means of reducing insecurity and minimising the need for defensive alliances

What is the United Nations?

an international organisation set up in 1945 with the primary aim of preserving world peace through the collective cooperation of its members

What was Roosevelt and Churchill’s objectives at Yalta?

• Collective security founded on the United Nations

• Long-term cooperation with the USSR

• The right to national self-determination and no spheres of influence

• Germany’s reconstruction and re-education as a democratic nation

• World economic reconstruction through the creation of the IMF and the World Bank

What was Stalin’s objectives at Yalta?

• USSR to be in control of its own destiny

• Cooperation with the Anglo-Americans

• The USSR’s security guaranteed through Soviet sphere of influence in Europe

• Germany to remain weak for the indefinite future

• Economic reconstruction for the USSR - mainly at Germany’s expense

What was ultimately agreed at Yalta?

• Germany would be divided into four zones - each administered by an allied power (USA, USSR, UK & France)

• Berlin would be similarly divided

• United Nations Organisation would be formally ratified

• USSR would gain land from Poland, and Poland would be expanded to the north and the west

• Declaration on Liberated Europe should be created

Why did the Yalta conference appear to give cause for great optimism?

Appeared to be very clear agreement between the East and the West

• however, the reality was that relations between Roosevelt and Churchill VS Stalin were already deteriorating

How had the Second World War affected the Soviet Union?

Devastated the Soviet Union!

• 25 million Soviet dead

• mass destruction of towns and cities, agriculture and industry

What became the supreme objective for Stalin?

Lasting security

• focused on ensuring that Eastern Europe lay within a Soviet sphere of influence

• intention of turning the whole of Germany into a communist state at some point in the future - wanted to keep it economically weak until it could be secured as a communist state

How was Stalin pragmatic?

• he & Molotov (foreign minister) viewed the Soviet Union’s Grand Alliance allies as fundamentally anti-USSR

Still wanted to keep open an avenue of cooperation with the West - Poland was a crucial issues in terms of East-West relations

What was Roosevelt committed to?

Cooperation as the basis for a lasting post-war statement

• however, the commitment was founded on the certainty that the post-war world should strongly reflect the American concept of democracy

How did Roosevelt misinterpret Stalin’s intentions?

Roosevelts interests of cooperation was done in the interests of the all of the states, and the security that the USSR valued so highly could only be achieved through what emerged at Yalta

• highlights fundamental misconception - explains why Roosevelt was willing to cooperate with Stalin

• convinced that Stalin shared the same understanding and values inherent in the configuration of the post-world war

What was Roosevelt sure he could secure?

Democratic future for the states of Eastern Europe and that international affairs could be managed through an international peacekeeping organisation

• criticised for a degree of naivety and for underestimating the security needs of the Soviet Union in terms of Eastern Europe

What was Churchill convinced that Stalin’s intentions were?

Intention to expand Soviet power in post-war Europe

• April 1944 wrote to the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden - ‘I cannot feel the slightest trust or confidence in them’

• believed that the Soviet Union could threaten Britain’s imperial interests - essential to establish a close alliance with the USA in order to counter this potential threat (urgency due to economic impact of the war upon Britain)

What was the Percentages Agreement, 1944?

Churchill and Stalin met in Moscow

• basis of the agreement was to establish the percentage of predominance Britain and the USSR would each have Eastern Europe states

• e.g. Romania - USSR was to have 90%, Greece - Britain had 90%, Hungary was 50% each

When was the Percentages Agreement?

October 1944

What did the Percentages Agreement, 1944, show about Churchill?

Determination to protect British interests in Eastern Europe

• determination to control Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe through spheres of Influences as a means of protecting British interests beyond any commitment to democracy in that region

What significantly deteriorated relationships after Yalta?

Disagreement quickly emerged over how the Declaration on Liberation Europe was interpreted

• specifically how it was applied to Poland

Stalin decided to reach the view that the communist government would stay in place, whilst Roosevelt viewed it an an entirely opposite way

When was the Potsdam Conference?

17th July - 1st August 1945

Diplomatically what had happened in Europe before the Potsdam Conference?

• War in Europe ended in May 1945

• Hitler committed suicide on 30th April

Despite this, war against Japan continued

• Stalin committed to aiding the Western powers in their continued struggle against Japan, although this was not a prospect either the USA or the UK really relished

What was the Potsdam Conference?

Members of Grand Alliance having to meet again

• death of President Roosevelt in April - replaced by his vice-president, Harry Truman

• Churchill initially attended - lost the General Election in Britain (26th July) - replaced by leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee

What was the significance of the Atomic Bomb for the Potsdam Conference?

Nuclear technology had finally been refined to a point where a weapon of mass destruction could be successfully deployed

• two bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945

• news of the completion of the atomic bomb was given to Stalin at Potsdam

Truman saw the bomb as a form of absolute pressure that could be used to persuade Stalin to fulfil the agreements he made over Europe’s future

• had the effect of reinforcing Stalin’s anxiety for the future of Soviet security

What occurred the day before the Potsdam Conference?

First successful detonation of the USA’s atomic bomb

• Truman hoped this would provide him with the diplomatic leverage he need to ensure Stalin stayed loyal to his agreements at Yalta

What was Potsdam characterised as?

Truman’s abrasive diplomacy and the determination of Stalin and Foreign Minister Molotov not to be intimidated by the USA’s nuclear monopoly

What was the consequences of the Potsdam Conference?

Resulted in some agreement - but significantly there was no long-term blueprint laid out for either the future of Germany or the parameters of international relations in the new world order

• nothing to reinforce the notion of international cooperation aimed at reconstructing a long-term future for post-war Europe

What was agreed at Potsdam?

• Germany was to be completely disarmed and demilitarised

• De-Nazification was to be carried out (war crimes judged and all formed Nazi party remembers removed from public office & education system no longer purged of Nazi influences)

• Decentralisation of the political system was to be untaken - local responsibility developed

• Freedom of speech and free press were to be restored (religious tolerance)

• Germany was to become a single economic unit with common policies on industry and finance

• USSR was to receive reparations from its own zone and an additional 25% from the Western Zones

What did the Conference of Potsdam fail to address?

Growing suspicion and uncertainty that had developed between the USA and the Soviet Union

What are reperations?

making amends for a wrong doing by someone to another; countries - usually takes a form of financial payment or other assistance to the wronged country

What were the Western Zones?

when Germany was divided into four zones of occupation those zones administered by Britain, the USA and France were referred to as the Western Zones

What did Truman want the post-war world to be based on?

(Like Roosevelt) Based on national self-determination, an open world trading system based on international economic cooperation, and world economic reconstruction through he creation of the IMF and the World Bank

• believed it would minimise the possibility of the USA returning to conditions experienced during the Great Depression

• would fulfil the USA’s ideological Imperatives and it would ensure the USA’s geostrategic interests by limiting the expansion of the territorial influence of other states

What does geostrategic mean?

geostrophic areas that have some degree of strategic importance to a state; term usually relates to a location in terms of how an area impacts on the power of states within a particular region

What was the Great Depression in 1929?

Most of the world faced an economic crisis due to the Wall Street Crash in the USA

• USA faced its crisis in confidence, requested that foreign firms and governments repay their loans immediately, causing other countries to plunge into even deeper crisis’s

• Italy & Soviet Union were the exceptions - somewhat protected by their economic policies of autarky (essentially closed economies that do not participate in international trade)

How did Truman begin to regard the basis for relations with Stalin with? (replacing cooperation)

Confrontation

• hoped USA’s possessions of nuclear technology would be the key to ensuring Stalin’s cooperation over the composition of provisional governments in Eastern Europe

• feared the growth of Soviet power in Eastern Europe, the removal of anti-communist leaders, and the rise of pro-communist provisional governments

• US ambassador to Moscow warned Truman of the effects of Soviet expansionism - ‘barbarian invasion of Europe’ - but still thought there could be a potential for agreement

What did Truman become increasingly convinced about with the USSR?

USSR was not receptive to diplomatic solutions

• some force would be necessary to ensure Soviet compliance with US wishes

• believed that this approach was the only one Stalin would understand

By Potsdam, what was Stalin convinced about relations?

USA and its allies were potential rivals for the dominance in Europe

• reinforced his obsession with Soviet security - necessitated the Red Army’s continued presence in Eastern Europe and the intensification of the programme of installing pro-communist regimes in these liberated states

• cooperation from Stalin had passed

What did Stalin think about the agreements regarding Germany? (Potsdam)

Acceptable

• had a clear and unspoken alternative agenda for the rest of Europe

What was Stalin’s agenda for the rest of Europe?

Eastern European states formed the basis of the USSR’s long-term security system

• required these states having comparable political and economic systems to those of the USSR

• strength came through unity and a common identity

• Stalin soon came to see the USA as having an anti-Soviet agenda

What had Britain confirmed from the events since Yalta?

Stalin was an expansionist in Europe

Why was the alliance with the USA so vital for Britain?

USA could act as the primary defender of the Western zones of Germany against any Soviet threat

What had British foreign policy looked like since the Potsdam Conference?

Focused on anti-communist Soviet stance

• Attlee supported the terms of the Potsdam Conference but he was also conscious that they weakened Germany, at least in the short term

• Further concern - Potsdam did not offer a long-term plan for the future of Germany

Particularly urgent in context of Stalin’s absolute failure to implement his agreements on Poland and the Declaration on Liberated Europe made at Yalta

What are the five main causes for the collapse of the Grand Alliance?

• Problems over Poland

• Ideological Divisions

• US commitment to post-war liberal democracy

• US atomic monopoly

• No long-term plan for Germany