origins of cold war

what came first the potsdam or yalta conference ?

yalta

who was present at the yalta conference ?

Joseph Stalin- USSR
Winston Churchill-Great Britain
Franklin D Roosevelt- USA

how were the three people present at the yalta conference described ?

the big 3

what were Churchills aims at the yalta conference ?

.aware of stalins aims,wanted to protect britains interests
.wanted a close relationship with the USA
.struggled to understand Stalins point of view
.as an anti-communist he was mistrustful of stalin

what were Roosevelt's aims for the yalta conference ?

.committed to working with the ussr and get on well with stalin
.believed only a capitalist europe could prevent future war
.some argue that he misunderstood Stalin's aims and assumed they wanted the same thing

what were stalins aims for the yalta conference?

.wanted to ensure the suffering endured by ussr during the war never happened again
.believed creating a sphere of influence around the ussr was the best way to ensure security
.recognised the need for co-operation with the west

what were the key agreements made at yalta ?

.agreed to split germany into 4 zones - France,USA,USSR and GB
.free elections in eastern europe
.the UN would be formed to ensure future cooperation

who was present at the potsdam conference ?

The leaders present were Stalin (USSR), Truman (USA), and Attlee (Britain)

how did the grand alliance start to dissolve by the time of the potsdam conference ?

.Stalin's desire to make Germany pay reparations was opposed by Attlee and Truman
.Truman and Attlee wanted independence for countries but Stalin wanted them to remain under soviet influence

with USSR's red army occupying most of eastern Europe abs war against japan still going the west had to accept the situation

what did Attlee think when attending the Potsdam conference ?

.worried about soviet expansion
.wanted a secure Germany
.saw Britain as weaker and needing American friendship

What did Truman think going into the Potsdam conference ?

.wanted self-determination for the countries of Europe
.distrusted Stalin and his intentions
.thought america had upper hand cause of atom bomb

what did Stalin think going into the Potsdam conference ?

.saw America as a rival and wanted security for USSR
.thought he was in a powerful position with the red army occupying eastern Europe
.distrusted America now they had the atom bomb

what were the key agreements made at the Potsdam conference ?

.division of Germany was confirmed
.the nazi party was banned and it's leaders put on trial
.Poland was to lose territory to the ussr

how did the soviets make it difficult for non-communist parties to gain power in eastern european countries ?

rigged elections, arrested and executed oppositions

at the end of the second world war which countries did the red army already occupy (who was the land taken from)?

the red army occupied the land that they had taken from the nazis including Poland,Hungary and Yugoslavia

why was communism popular in eastern Europe after ww11 ?

after the horrors of the nazi occupation

what were the western responses to soviet expansion ?

1.the long telegram
2.churchill's iron curtain speech

what was the long telegram ?

In February of 1946 George Kennan, a US diplomat stationed in Moscow, sent a telegram back to Washington describing Soviet government and saying that the US and Soviet Union could not coexist


he said
-he believed the soviets wanted to spread the USSRS influence as widely as possible
-the ussr saw the USA as its enemy
-any attempt at co-operation between the USA and the USSR would fail

what was churchill's iron curtain speech ?

gave a speech about the situation in Europe

churchill said:
.the ussr was attempting to spread its influence across the rest of Europe and increase its power
.an invisible line had split Europe in two,between the East and West. Called the line the iron curtain

what was the Truman doctrine-1947 ?

the american policy towards communism after ww11. Truman outlined the policy in a speech to congress in March 1947

What did the Truman Doctrine state? what did Truman say in his speech ?

US would provide money to nations threatened by communist expansion
the focus must be on 'containing' communism- keeping it in the countries where it has already been established

What was the Marshall Plan designed to do?

.to aid economic recovery in europe in order to stop people from turning to communism
.to support the containment of communism within Eastern Europe
.to create a market for american goods in order to build the American economy

what was the plan for the marshall plan ?

$13.15 billion was divided among the countries that were willing to accept aid

aid was offered to all countries in europe, east and west

aid was supplied in the form of money or resources. All resources had to be bought from American supplier

what were the results of the marshall plan ?

vital for recovery of western europe. allowed standard of living to rise

american economy benefitted

demonstrated usa was committed to involvement in europe for the long term

communism became less popular in western europe

division of east and west became more firmly established, stalin forbade counties behind the iron curtain from accepting aid

what was stalin's response to the truman doctrine ?

saw it as a direct threat to communism

created -communist information bureau -cominform to ensure unity on eastern europe

what did all cominform members do ?

meet regularly in moscow to ensure that they were following the same policies

what was stalin's response to the marshall plan ? what did he think ?

saw it as an example of "dollar imperialism", he thought that the usa gained power over countries that accosted their aid and was fearful they were using this power to dominate the world

what did stalin make clear about eastern european countries in response to the marshall plan ?

they should not accept any aid form the usa

what did stalin create in response to the marshall plan ?

comecon
a soviet alternative to marshall aid. countries who signed up to comecon were agreeing to work together and share resources in what was officially a union of equal partners

in reality all decisions were made in moscow

why was yugoslavia a problem for stalin ?

unlike other communist countries in eastern europe, Yugoslavia did not owe its freedom from the nazis to the red army.

it's leader had no particular loyalty to stalin

how did yugoslavia and stalins relationship start to go wrong ?

tito was unwilling to follow all of stalin's instructions. he saw yugoslavia as an independent country

in 1948, Tito accepted marshall aid, something stalin had specifically forbidden. Yugoslavia was the only communist county to accept this aid from USA.

yugoslavia was a communist country that was not behind the iron curtain

what were the causes of the berlin blockade and airlift, 1948-49 ?
what did stalin and western allies want ?

division of berlin had been agreed at yalta and potsdam.Inituallt the allies worked together to run berlin

western allies- berlin to be rebuilt
stalin opposed saw germany as potential threats

the western allies agreed to unify their sectors of germany

ussrs ultimate aim was for the withdrawal of all western officials from berlin

what was the blockade ?
who introduced it ?

blocked military supply routes,traffic restrictions and closing bridges for 'maintenance'

stalin launched a full blockade. transport links were blocked into west berlin. no supplies could reach into non-soviet part of the city. electricity supplied from within the soviet sector was cut

what was the western response to the berlin blockade and airlift ?

truman and attlee both determined to not give in

west first response- a counter-blockade, stopped trains travelling out of west berlin. limited impact

on 26 june 1948 british and american planes began delivering supplies to west berlin

what was the 'easter parade' ?

delivered 12,000 tonnes of coal were delivered on 15 april 1949

when did stalin end the blockade ?

on 12th may

what were the consequences of the blockade and airlift ?

pushed the two sides to brink of war

on 23 may 1949 west germany became an independent country

in october 1949 the german democratic republic was created as a soviet-style communist state

when was nato formed ? what was it ??

in april 1949 the usa,britain and 19 other non-communist countries formed it. usa was committed fo supporting western europe. A soviet rival, the warsaw pact was created six years later

When did China become communist?

October 1949

who was the leader of China who declared China a communist country ?

Mao Tse-Tung

what did the ussr and china sign when China was declared communist ?

a treaty of friendship

what did the treaty of friendship between china and the ussr say ?

$300 million in aid would be sent to china - 95% would have to be repaid
8000 chinese students sent to ussr to study science and technology
20,000 soviet experts were sent to develop china
china agreed to give two of the major ports to the ussr and give them right to mine

how did stalin see himself ? in terms of communism

as the leader of world communism

how did china and the ussr's relationship start off, when did this end ?

started off well this started to break down after stalin's death particularly

how did the west respond to China becoming communist ?

saw it as a disaster
refused to recognise the new government

in Washington and other western capitals how was Mao's victory seen ?

-a failure of the Truman doctrine and the policy of containment -a victory for stalin, now had influence over the most highly populated country in the world -a threat to the rest of Asia, particularly Taiwan (last part of china held by the nationalists) and Japan 9still recovering from effects of ww2)

what did the USA do in response to Mao's victory ?

dramatically increased funding to Japan and other countries in asia, trying to combat threat of communism to these countries

how did the thaw in relations between the USA and the USSR come to an abrupt end ?

when the soviets shot down an American spy plane

explain how the american spy plane got shot down-u2 crisis

the u2 spy planes were the USA's most effective method of gathering intelligence- were able to photograph weapons development without detection.

this was until the plane flown by US pilot Gary Powers was shot down by the USSR

The americans claimed it was simply a weather plane that had strayed into soviet territory, clear evidence this was not the case

powers was put on trial and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment

what was the immediate consequence of the u2 crisis ?

a day after claiming it was a weather plane, USA admitted it was a spy plane.Eisenhower refused to apologise.

Eisenhower and Khrushchev were due to meet at Paris Peace Summit in May 1960.U2 crisis overshadowed the event

Khrushchev was highly critical pf Eisenhower. He walked out if the summit before any discussions could take place.

Khrushchev cancelled what was due to be a historic trip to USA

Eisenhower promised to only 'suspend' spy flights and Khrushchev refused to meet the president again

what were the wider consequences of the u2 crisis ?

paris peace summit was supposed to represent a step towards improved relations and to build peaceful co-existence.Eisenhower hoped to end his presidency by improving the USA's relationship with the USSR.Tensions were higher

What senator led a campaign to root out communism in the USA ?

Jospeh McCarthy
people started to believe there were 'reds under the bed'

when Eisenhower left office how were relations between East and West ?

tensions were very high