Relations between Truman, Stalin and Attlee

What did Truman want?

Post-war world based on national self-determination, open world trading system based on international economic cooperation, and world economic reconstruction through the creation of IMF and the World Bank

What is the IMF?

International monetary fund

What did Truman wishes minimise?

Possibility of the USA returning to conditions experienced in the Great Depression

What would Stalin’s wishes fulfil and ensure?

USA’s ideological imperatives and ensure USA’ geographical interests by limiting expansion

What led to the Great Depression 1929?

Wall Street Crash

What was the Great Depression defined by?

Economic crisis

What did USA request after facing the crisis in confidence?

Foreign firms and governments repay their loans immediately

Who were expectations to USA’ requests?

Italy and Soviet union

What was the basis of relations between Truman and Stalin?

Confrontation

What did Truman hope about USA’s possession of nuclear technology?

It would ensure Stalin’s cooperation over the composition of provisional governments in Eastern Europe

What did Truman fear?

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

What did the US ambassador to Moscow warn Truman?

Soviet expansionism was a ‘barbarian invasion invasion of Europe’ but there was potential for an agreement

What was Truman convinced that the USSR would not be?

Receptive to diplomatic solutions

What did Truman want to use against Stalin?

Force to ensure Soviet compliance with US wishes

What was Stalin convinced of by Potsdam?

USA and its allies were rivals for dominance in Europe

What was Stalin obsessed with?

Soviet security

What did Stalin’s obsession with soviet security make unavoidable?

Red Army’s presence in Eastern Europe and the intensification of the programme of installing pro-communist regimes in these liberated states

What did Stalin need to ensure with Eastern Europe?

That it formed the basis of the USSR’s long-term security system

What made the time of cooperation for Stalin go?

Potsdam Conference

What did USSR want to do in with systems in Eastern Europe?

Make the political and economic systems comparable to the USSR’s

What was confirmed to Attlee?

Stalin was an expansionist in Europe

What country to Britain was geographically supreme?

Germany

What was it vital that USA act as?

Primary defender of the Western zones of Germany against Soviet threat

What was British foreign policy focused on?

Anti-communist Soviet stance

What was Attlee concerned about?

Agreements in the Potsdam Conference weakened Germany

Potsdam offered no long-term plan for the future of Germany