4. Who was to blame for the Cold War?

Question 1

What weere the agreements at the Yalta conference? + date

Answer 1

Feb 1945 – Allied leaders met to decide what would happen to Germany after the war:
1. Germany to be divided into four quarters – American, British, French, Soviet
2. Countries liberated from occupation to hold free elections
3. Agreed to join United Nations
4. Eastern Europe to become a ‘Soviet sphere of influence’

Question 2

What were the disagreements at the Yalta conference?

Answer 2

• tension between leaders
• indecision on how to take care of Greece
• Poland: Stalin wanted to extend USSR to Poland, and Poland to Germany. Not agreed by Churchill/Roosevelt, but not much they could do since Stalin’s Red Army was in total control of Eastern Europe + Poland. Plan accepted as long as USSR wouldn’t interfere in Greece, where British were trying to stop communist take over

Question 3

Potsdam conference agreements + date

Answer 3

July 1945
1. Stalin’s armies now occupied most of Eastern Europe
2. US had new President – Truman
3. US had atomic bomb

Question 4

Disagreements in Potsdam conference

Answer 4

1. Should Germany be crippled?
2. Stalin wanted reparations but USA was scared germany would want revenge
3. Truman worried about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe

Question 5

What where reasons for distrust in the beginnings of the Cold War?

Answer 5

• Both sides began to increase arms expenditure
  1. US suspicious of Communism
  2. Both countries emerged from WW2 as ‘superpowers’
  3. US saw it as their responsibility to intervene in world affairs, especially in fight against Communism
  4. Western powers alarmed by Stalin’s power + influence in Eastern Europe
  5. USA hadn’t opened a second front in first way when USSR needed
  6. Russia signed Nazi-Soviet pact
  7. USA was against Bolsheviks in russian civil wat

Question 6

Truman Doctrine

Answer 6

1947
* US prepared to send money, equipment and advice to any country threatened by Communist takeover
* A policy of CONTAINMENT – not to allow Communism to spread any further

Question 7

Marshall Aid

Answer 7

1948
* European economy was weak and therefore vulnerable to Communist takeover: Rationing, debt, coal shortages
* American General George Marshall recommended $17 billion to rebuild Europe’s economy

Question 8

Stalin’s reaction to Marshall Aid

Answer 8

• Stalin forbade eastern European states to accept Marshall Aid – seen as an attempt to increase US trade and influence in Europe (dollar imperialism)

Question 9

What was the Berlin blockade?

Answer 9

• Britain, France, US combined their zones in Germany into one zone
• Stalin saw this as a provocative act
• In June 1948 he blockaded Berlin in order to maintain full Soviet control over the city – the US could not allow this, but did not want to provoke war

Question 10

Berlin Airlift

Answer 10

• US began to airlift supplies into West Berlin – if Stalin shot down these planes it would be act of war
• For 10 months West Berlin was supplied by US in this manner
• May 1949 – Stalin gave up and lifted blockade