Early Cold War

The Conferences (Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam)

Context

• The USSR allied with Britain and the USA during the Second World War in what became known as the Grand Alliance

• Stalin, leader of the USSR, was forced into this arrangement by the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941

• Between 1943 and 1945 the leaders, often referred to as the Big Three, held three conferences

• They hoped to reach agreements about how to defeat the Axis powers (Germany & Japan), and also how to deal with them once the war was finished.

The Teheran Conference

• The first conference was held in Teheran, the capital of Iran in November 1943

• The meeting was attended by Roosevelt (USA), Stalin (USSR) and Churchill (Britain)

• The main purpose of the meeting was to reach agreements about how to defeat the Axis powers and bring the war to an end

• The main agreements reached were: Britain and the USA agreed to open up a second front by invading Nazi occupied France in 1944 (takes some of the pressure off the USSR), The USSR would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated, An area of eastern Poland would be given to the USSR

• There were already some tensions at Teheran: Stalin was angry that the USA and Britain had waited so long to open a second front in Europe (He was convinced that they were waiting for the USSR to be fatally damaged by Germany before intervening), Churchill was alarmed by the close relationship between the USA and the USSR (He was worried that US President Roosevelt always tended to side with Stalin)

The Yalta Conference

• The second conference was held in Yalta in the Crimea in February 1945

• The same three leaders attended as at Teheran

• By this time, however, the Allies were closing in on Berlin and Germany was close to defeat

• The main purpose of this conference, therefore, was to decide what would happen to Germany and Europe once the war had ended

• The main agreements reached were:

• The USSR would declare war on Japan once Germany had surrendered,

• A United Nations organisation would be set up to help maintain peace

• Germany was to be reduced in size and divided into four zones of occupation (Each zone would be governed by the USA, Britain, France and the USSR, the capital city of Germany, Berlin, would also be divided into four, leading Nazis would be hunted down and out on trial for war crimes)

• Countries in Eastern Europe that had been liberated from Nazi occupation were to have free elections to choose the Government they wanted

• The USSR would have Eastern Europe within its sphere of influence and Britain and the USA would have Western Europe in theirs (it was never formally decided what a ‘sphere of influence’ actually meant)

• Poland would be in the Soviet sphere of influence, Poland would have a ‘government of national unity’ made up of both communists and non-communists, it was agreed that Poland should have democratic elections in the future

The issue of Poland caused much debate at Yalta, Stalin was very reluctant to agree to allow free elections in the future, the Big Three also disagreed about reparations for Germany, Stalin wanted Germany to pay a much higher figure than Churchill & Roosevelt.

Unable to reach an agreement, the decision was delayed until the next conference.

Why did tensions increase between Yalta & Potsdam?

• Between the conferences at Yalta and Potsdam there was an increase in tension:

• Roosevelt died in April 1945. His replacement, President Truman, was much less

• sympathetic to the USSR.

• The USA tested their Atomic bomb. However, Truman did not tell Stalin and when he later found out, he was furious

• Churchill lost the election in Britain, part way through the conference he was replaced by the new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee

• Britain and America were angry because Stalin had arrested non-communist leaders in Poland and made the Government entirely communist

The Potsdam conference

• The final conference was held in Potsdam, Germany in July 1945

• It was attended by Truman (USA), Stalin (USSR) and Churchill/ Attlee (Britain)

• Many of the issues discussed at Yalta were revisited, although this time, relations between the Big Three were much more strained

• Some agreements were reached:

• There were further discussions over the boundaries of the zones in Germany & Berlin, it was also agreed that Germany was to be demilitarised

• Surviving Nazis wold be tried at a special court at Nuremberg and the party totally banned in Germany

• Each governing nation would take reparations from their own sector of Germany, in addition the USSR could take 10% of industrial equipment from all the zones

There were also some open disagreements. Although he accepted the agreement, Truman

was furious with the reparations deal. In addition, it was clear that Stalin had broken his

promise about Poland because a full communist Government had been installed. It seemed

that other eastern European countries were headed the same way.