US, British and USSR relations in 1945

What was the Cold War?

A state of prolong hostility between USA and USSR characterised by propaganda, proxy wars and military and economic competition

Which countries are western capitalist democracies?

USA and Britain

What is the idea of liberty based on?

Free market economies

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

What is the ideology of Capitalism?

• multi party free elections

• freedom of speech, worship and individuality

• private enterprise

Who was the founder of Communist Ideology?

Karl Marx - believed that capitalism led to the exploration of the proletarian majority by the ruling bourgeoisie

What was the Russian Revolution?

1917 - established (first communist) socialist state

• Lenin modified Marxist thinking by establishing Leninism as the means by which Marxism would be transformed into a practical reality rather than a theory

What did Stalin do in regards of Leninism when he established his role as leader of the USSR?

Modified Leninism to suit his own ends

• developed ‘cult of personality’

• promoted himself as the infallible interpreter of communist ideology

What is the ideology of Communism?

• one party state

• restricted freedoms

• state control

Capitalism versus communism

Each viewed the expansion of the other as a threat

• both communist East and the capitalist West saw the need to expand its own power and turned into a global aspiration

Ideological influence became driving obsessions for each side

What nickname is given to the alliance of US, Britain and the USSR?

The Grande Alliance - seen as a ‘marriage of convenience’ because the leaders Churchill and Stalin did not trust each other

What was Franklin D. Roosevelt committed to?

Post-war reconstruction based on unity among the victorious powers

Why was there tensions due to Roosevelts commitment to Post-war reconstruction amongst the victorious powers?

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

• This difference was a focus of tensions between East and West leading up to the Yalta Conference

When was the Yalta Conference?

4th - 11th February 1945

Who attended the Yalta Conference?

• Stalin

• Roosevelt

• Winston Churchill

What did the Yalta Conference represent?

the high point of inter-allied cooperation

• preparation for planning for the imminent end of the war

What were the outcomes of The Yalta Conference?

Reaffirmed the belief that the Grand Alliance was still alive and well

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

What was the issues with The Yalta Conference?

The objectives of the key players were not entirely in line

What were Roosevelt and Churchill’s objectives at Yalta?

• Collective security founded on the UN

• Long-term cooperation with the USSR

• The right to national self-determination and no sphere 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

• 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 agreed at the Yalta Conference 1945?

• Germany was agreed to be divided into four zones of occupation: USA, USSR, UK & France

• Berlin divided

• United Nations Organisation would be formally ratified

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

• Declaration on Liberated Europe should be created

Evaluation of the Yalta Conference

Conference appeared to give cause for great optimism

Clear areas of agreement between East and West (Roosevelt and Churchill)

However, the reality was the relationship with Stalin was already deteriorating

How did WW2 devastate the Soviet Union?

• 25 million Soviet dead

• along with the mass destruction of towns and cities, agriculture and identity

Lasting security became a supreme objective for Stalin

Who was Starlin’s Foreign Minister?

Vyacheslav Molotov

How did Starlin and Moltov view the Grand Alliance allies?

Fundamentally anti-USSR

• Despite this, Stalin was a pragmatist

• Wanted to keep open an avenue of cooperation with the West

• Poland was a crucial issues in terms of East-West relations

What did Stalin’s priorities in Europe focus on?

Ensuring that Eastern Europe lay within a Soviet sphere of influence

• Intention to turn the whole of Germany into a communist state in the future

• Dismemberment of Germany would not be good

Economically weak until can be secured as communist

What was Roosevelt’s commitment?

Basis for lasting post-war settlement was clear

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

Interest of all states, and the security that the USSR valued so highly - only could be achieve at Yalta

How was it a fundamental misconception that Roosevelt was willing to cooperate with Stalin?

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

What was Roosevelt certain that he could secure for the states of Eastern Europe?

Democratic (non-communist)

• International affairs could be managed through an international peacekeeping organisation

What was Churchill convinced that was Stalin’s intention?

Expand soviet power in post-war Europe

• April 1944 wrote to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden about his lack of trust for communist leaders

What did Churchill believe that the Soviet Union could threaten?

Britain imperial interests

• Essential that Britain establish a close alliance with the USA in order to counter this potential threat

• This strategy assumed even greater urgency given the economic impact of the war upon Britain

How did Churchill protect British interests in Eastern Europe and the Balkans in October 1944?

Arrived at the ‘percentages agreement’ with Stalin

• Showed Churchill’s determination to control Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe through spheres of influence

• Means to commitment to democracy in that region

How did relationships begin to deteriorate after Yalta?

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

• especially Poland!

Stalin reached the view that the communist government would stay in place while Roosevelt viewed it in an entirely opposite way

Who were the members of the Grand Alliance?

• Harry Truman (Roosevelt’s vice president)

• Clement Attlee (Churchill had lost the General Election in Britain)

• Joseph Stalin

What happened the day before the Potsdam Conference?

The first successful detonation of the USA’s atomic bomb had taken place

• Truman hoped to provide him with the diplomatic leverage he needed to ensure Stalin stayed loyal to the agreements at Yalta

How was Potsdam characterised?

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

Was there agreements made during 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

What was agreed at the Potsdam Conference?

• Germany to be completed disarmed and demilitarised

• de-Nazification to be carried out

• Decentralisation of the political system was to be untaken

• Freedom of speech and a free press were to be restored

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

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

What did The Potsdam Conference not reinforce?

The notion of international cooperation aimed at reconstructing a long-term future for post-war Europe

• did nothing to lay the foundations of a viable and non-confrontational relationship between communist East and capitalist West

What did The Potsdam Conference fail to address?

Address the growing suspicion and uncertainty that had developed between the USA and the Soviet Union

What did Truman want?

• post-war world based on national self-determination

• open world trading system based on international economic cooperation

• world economic reconstruction through the creation of the IMF and the World bank

Why did Truman believe that these changes were necessary in the post-war world?

• Would minimise the possibility of the USA returning to conditions experienced during the Great Depression

• It geostrategic interests by limiting the expansion of the territorial influence of other states (Especially the USSR)

What did Truman quick come to regard as the basis for relations with Stalin?

Confrontation rather than cooperation

• hoped that the USA’s possession of nuclear technology would be the key to ensuring Stalin’s cooperation over the growth of Soviet power in Eastern Europe

What did Truman fear?

• Growth of Soviet power in Eastern Europe

• The removal of anti-communist leaders

• The rise of pro-communist provisional governments

What did the US ambassador to Moscow warn Truman about?

The effects of Soviet expansionism

• describing it as a ‘barbarian invasion of Europe’ - but thought that there was still a potential for agreement

What did Truman become increasingly convinced about the USSR?

Convinced that the USSR was not receptive to diplomatic solutions and some form of force may be necessary to ensure Soviet compliance with US wishes

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

By Potsdam, what was Stalin convinced about the USA?

The USA and its allies were potential rivalries

• reinforced his obsession with Soviet security, which 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

What time did Stalin believed had now passed?

The time for cooperation had now passed

• what was agreed on Germany was acceptable to Stalin but he had a clear and unspoken alternative agender for the rest of Europe

What did Stalin have to ensure?

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

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

• Strength came through unity and a common identity

What did Stalin soon come to see the USA as?

having an anti-Soviet agenda

What did the events since Yalta confirm to Britain?

Stalin was an expansionist in Europe

For Britain was Germany’s geostrategic, in Europe, significant?

Yes - Supreme

• Vital that the USA act as the primary defender of Western zones of Germany against any Soviet threat

What was Britain foreign policy focused on?

Anti-communist (Soviet stance)

Did Attlee support the agreed terms at Potsdam?

• he was conscious that they weakened Germany: at least in the short term

• further concern that Potsdam offered no long-term plan for the future of Germany

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