pre cold war tensions

Big three formed the…

Grand alliance:
- roosevelt

- churchill

- stalin

was formed in 1941 after germany invaded soviet union despite a non agression pact

roosevelt and churchill were capitalist, and they lowkey judged stalin for being communist but he was against germany so they worked with him to touch hitler

even though they made this alliance, they still were wary of eachother

To win the war, the grand alliance met in three conferences…

Tehran 1941, Yalta and Potsdam 1945

Tehran 1941; second…

• us and britain would open a second front, taking away pressure on the soviets

• they decided germany should remain weak after the war

pleased stalin because the second front would help the soviet soldiers; he thought they were deliberately delaying this

Yalta 1945; zones 20 free UN

• after war, germany would be split into 4 zones controlled by britain france usa sovietunion (stalin didnt like that hed been assigned the poorest sector)

• germany to pay $20 billion in reperations

• stalin agreed future eastern european govts would be decided in free elections

• United nations to be set up

tldr; germany into 4 zones ——— $20 billion reparations —— free elections —— united nations

Potsdam 1945

roosevelt packed off humbly - replaced by truman

churchill lost election - replaced by clement attlee

these two newbies were new to diplomatic discussions and found it harder to get their way with stalin giving stalin agency

• germany split into 4 but, berlin also split into 4

• economy to be run as a whole

Soviet attitudes; ………/….. telegram

Kennan’s long telegram:
reported that stalin wanted to see the destruction of capitalism

led to US idea of containment

also reported that soviet union was not suicidal; would back down under heavy resistance

US attitudes: ………….. telegram

Novikov telegram:

detailed that USA wanted to dominate the world with military power

novikov believed the US no longer wanted to cooperate with soviet union

and that US citizens would support a war between them

led to soviets wanting to develop protection

british attitudes: churchill …….

iron curtain speech

made it clear that soviet union was a threat to world peace

1945 america packed off japan

dropped 2 nuclear bombs on japan

countries felt safer under US arms

rather than intimidating stalin, it motivated him to make nuclear bombs faster

……… zone

Buffer zone:

stalin used eastern european countries he freed from the nazis as a buffer zone between soviet union and germany, they had communist governments

evidence for truman that soviet union wanted to spread communism