Origins of the Cold War

Question 1

The event at Yalta Conference 1945

Answer 1

The 3 leaders,Stalin,Churchill and Rossevelt met on February 4th 1945.

The west formed the UN, the declaration of europe was agreed to, the Soviet Union for Poland’s borders moved.

He gained more territory and all big 3 split Germany into four zones between France,Britain,USA and SU.

Question 2

The Grand Alliance

Answer 2

It was formed between the USA,the Soviet Union and Britain to mastermind the defeat of Germany and Japan in WW2.

The alliance was formed when a force of 4 million German troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.

It’s important to remember that,although the 3 countries had formed an alliance,there was no real change in how they viewed each other.

The USA and Britain,in particular,remained suspicious of communism,and Stalin realised that the West wouldn’t want to take any actions that made the Soviet Union stronger.

Question 3

Agreements made at the Tehran Conference November 1943.

Answer 3

The USA and Britain would open a ‘second front’ by launching an attack on Germany in Western Europe.This would ease pressure on the Western Front.

Stalin would declare war against Japan and supply Soviet troops to help the USA with the war against Japan.

The Big three also discussed what would happen to Germany and the countries east of Germany after the war.

There was no formal agreement,but it was agreed in principle that the aim of the war was to bring about the unconditional surrender of Germany and that it should remain weak after the war.

There was a general agreement that an international body should be set up to settle disputes through discussion and negotiation.

This laid the ground for the future formation of the United Nations.

Question 4

Agreements made at Yalta Conference 1945

Answer 4

After the war,Germany would be split into four zones and they would each be controlled by a different power,the USA,Britain,France and the Soviet Union.

Germany would pay $20 billion in reparations,half of which would go to the Soviet Union.

The Nazi Party would be banned and war criminals prosecuted.

A United Nations would be set up,with its first meeting on 25th April 1945 and all nations could join,but the USA and France didn’t agree with Stalin’s suggestion that all 16 Soviet republics should be given individual membership.

Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan,three months after the defeat of Germany.

Stalin agreed the future governments of countries in Eastern Europe would de decided in free elections.

Question 5

The Potsdam July-August 1945

Answer 5

The new personalities involved meant that relations between the 3 leaders at Potsdam were very different.

Compared to Roosevelt and Churchill,Truman and Attlee were new to diplomatic discussions and it was much harder for them.

Truman was determined to take a ‘get tough’ approach with Stalin and deliberately delayed the date of the conference until the atomic bomb was ready.

Question 6

Agreements made at Potsdam conference

Answer 6

Germany would be divided into 4 zones administered by the Soviet Union,the USA,Britain and France,but the German economy would be run as a whole.

Berlin would also be divided into 4 zones,controlled by different countries,even though it was based well inside Germany.

The Soviet Union wanted Germany to pay heavy reparations,but Truman was concerned that this would make it harder for the German economy to recover.

Question 7

The Truman Doctrine

Answer 7

The USA had hoped that wealthier European countries,such as Britain,might be able to help rebuild Europe’s shattered economies.

But,after 6 years of war,Britain was nearly bankrupt and aid to other countries was becoming impossible.

When the British government announced in 1947 that it could no longer provide military support to the Greek government against communist guerrillas.

On 12th March 1947,President Truman delievered a speech to the US Congress and the speech was offically given to announce an ecnomic aid package to Greece and Turkey.

Question 8

The Marshall Plan

Answer 8

The USA hadn’t suffered damage to its infrastructure and industry during the war in the same way as European countries had.

3 months after Truman’s speech,details were set out on how that aid would be provided in a speech by the US secretary of state.

It was a practical outcome of the Truman Doctrine,providing economic aid to help war torn countries in order to stop communism from taking over.

The economic impact of Marshall Aid in Western Europe was enormous although it took until the 1950s for the full effects to be seen.

In the USA,there was much debate about whether to offer aid to the Soviet Union and satellite states.

It was decided that it could be offered but countries first have to agree to a thorough review of their finances.

Question 9

The formation of Cominform and Comecon

Answer 9

The Marshall Plan set Stalin an economic and political challenge.

He therefore created two new organisations for the communist countries of Europe,Cominform and Comecon.

Question 10

Cominform,1947

Answer 10

Cominform was a political organisation set up on Stalin’s orders on 22nd September 1947.

It had 9 members:the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communists Parties of the satellite states of Bulgaria,Czechoslovakia,Hungary,Poland and Romania along with Yugoslavia,France and Italy.

The strongest support for Cominform came from the Yugoslav communists under the leadership of Tito,so its headquarters were established in Belgrade.

However,growing tension between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union led to the explosion of Yugoslavia from Cominform in June 1948.

The new body gave Stalin a way of directing and controlling the governments of the satellite states.

He wanted to ensure that they not only followed communism,but also took orders from Moscow.

The satellite states were encouraged to concentrate on trading with other Cominform members and all contact with non communist countries were discouraged.

Question 11

Comecon,1949

Answer 11

Stalin wanted communist states to keep their independence from capitalist governments and didn’t want the US to become influential in Eastern Europe.

He did this to not allow the satellite states to accept Marshall aid.

He therefore created Comecon to provide aid in line with communist principles and was established on 25th January 1949.

It was in direct competition with the Marshall Plan and aimed to support economic development in its member states.

At first Comecon’s main activities were arranging trade and credit agreements between member countries.

Question 12

Comecon 1949

2

Answer 12

After 1953 the Soviet Union used Comecon to try to organise industrial planning across all the satellite states.

Each state had a 5 year plan,nationalised industry and collectivised agriculture and trade with the USA and Western Europe was discouraged in favour of trade with the SU.

Stalin formed Cominform and Comecon in response to the threat he believed the Marshall Plan posed to the SU.

However,his actions actually increased tension and played a significant part in the USA and Western European countries creating a new military alliance,the NATO(April,1949)

Question 13

The 1948 Berlin Crisis-Germany divided

Answer 13

At Potsdam,the Grand Alliance agreed to divide Germany,and its capital Berlin,into 4 separate occupation zones.

The division was meant to be temporary but ended up lasting for many years.

The ACC was the central organisation for the 4 zones and there were soldiers on the streets and,in Berlin,military checkpoints between zones.

The Soviets wanted to take as much material as possible back to help rebuild the SU,whilst the Western countries wanted to build up German’s economy.

In December 1947,talks between the foreign ministers of the occupying powers broke down.

Question 14

Uniting the Western zones-Cuban Missile Crisis (1948)

Answer 14

With the Soviets,no longer cooperating the remaining allies had to decide how to run their part of Germany.

The British and Americans had already combined their zones into ‘Bitzonia’ in 1947 and in March 1948,the French added theirs to create ‘Trizonia’.

In June 1948,the 3 allies created a single currency,the Deutschmark,to give Trizonia economic unity.

To Stalin,this was a further example of the West ‘ganging up’ on the Soviet Union.

Question 15

Uniting the Western zones

2

Answer 15

He saw the formation of Trizonia as means of developing the 3 zones more effectivelt and deliberately forcing the Soviet zone into poverty.

He was now even more determined to stand firm and protect Soviet interests in Germany.

He believed Germany should be one united country and that it should follow communist ideology.

Question 16

The Berlin Blockade

Answer 16

-Stalin knew that the Western occupied zone of Berlin were vulnerable,as they were entirely surrounded by SU occupied territory.

Also,there were 2 agreed land routes and 2 air routes or corridors across the Soviet zone of Germany to Western occupied Berlin.

In June 1948,Stalin decided to shut off the land routes across Soviet controlled Germany into Berlin,in what has known as the Berlin blockade.

He wanted to show 3 countries that divided Germany wouldn’t work.

The main section of Trizonia in WG would no longer be able to communicate with the capital Berlin and the people of Berlin would soon run short of food.

Question 17

The Berlin Blockade

2

Answer 17

If the blockade was successful,Stalin would win a huge propaganda success at the expense of the West.

It might also mean that the Western powers would give up control of their zones in Berlin and allow the whole of the capital to be controlled by the SU.

The West knew that an attempt to force supplies to Berlin along the closed land routes would be seen as potential act of war.

However,if they flew supplies into their zones in Berlin,the only way they could have been stopped was if Stalin shot the planes down.

Question 18

The Berlin Airlift

Answer 18

The Western allies flew food,coal and other necessities,assembled in the Allied zones,along the air corridors.

The pilots took a big risk as they couldn’t be sure the Soviets wouldn’t shoot them down.

The people of West Berlin and Western troops in the city joined forces to build a new runaway at tne old airport Berlin Tempelhof so that supplies could be landed in the Western zones

Ordinary citizens helped to unload the planes and hand out the essential supplies to all who needed them.

The Americans were soon able to fly in at least 1000 tonnes of supplies every day and the British achieved a similar rate.

On 9th May 1949,the Soviets gave in and lifted the blockade and West Berlin had survived and Stalin’s attempt to win a propaganda victory backfired.

Question 19

The formation of East and West Germany

Answer 19

After the Berlin blockade,it was clear that the division of Germany would continue.

The Western allies quickly moved to create a separate West Germany.

Question 20

What is the federal republic of Germany?

Answer 20

• 23 May 1949:Just 3 days after the end of the blockade,the USA,Britain and France permitted their zones to come together as a state.
• 14th August 1949:Germans in the new country were allowed to elect their own parliament,called the Bundestag.
• 15th September 1949:The first democratically elected chancellor of the Federal Republic,Konrad Adenauer took office.
• The Federal Republic’s new capital was Bonn.The new country was much bigger than East Germany.
• The 3 Western controlled zones of Berlin continued and became known as West Berlin.

Question 21

German Democratic Republic(East Germany)

Answer 21

• Stalin responded by creating the German Democratic Republic in October 1949.
• Only the communist bloc countries recognised it as a nation.
• The Federal Republic refused to recognise that Germany had been split in 2 until the 1970s.

Question 22

NATO 1949

Answer 22

• They wanted to send Stalin a message about their determination to stand firm against communism.
• The members of NAT0 agreed that if any member was attacked,all members of NATO would come to its assistance.
• Ernest Bervin played a major part in bringing about this alliance.
• He made a speech in the British parliament in which he said that European countries would welcome American involvement and called on other Western countries to reach out to USA.
• It resulted in an ongoing American military presence in Europe throughout the Cold War,which has continued right up to the present day.

Question 23

The Warsaw Pact,1955

Answer 23

When the German Federal Republic was allowed to join NATO in May 1955,Stalin’s fears were increased.

Now there was a real danger of an armed and powerful Germany on the borders of Soviet controlled Eastern Europe.

Within a week of West Germany joining NATO,the SU formed an equivalent communist defensive military alliance-The Warsaw Pact.

The countries selected were known as the ‘Eastern bloc’.

Question 24

The Warsaw Pact(1955)

2

Answer 24

Although the Warsaw Pact had many member states,the leadership was entirely Soviet and the alliance was under the command of the SU.

Europe in reality was in 2 Europes.

One was under the protection of the US and working to defeat communism.

The other was led by the SU and seeking to extend communist control.

The confrontation and hostility between these 2 camps would drive international relations for the next 35 years.

Question 25

The Hungarian Uprising,1956

Answer 25

During 1956,the people of Hungary began to protest about their lack of political freedoms and problems created by poor harvests.

Soviet troops restored order,but Khruschev decided to replace Rakosi with Imre Nagy.

Question 26

The Hungarian Uprising(1956)-Imre Nagy

Answer 26

He was former prime minister that believed that withn a communist regime,there should be personal freedoms.

He announced a set of proposed reforms.

He reorganised the Hungarian government to include members of non communist parties.

He also authorised the immediate release of many political prisoners and persuaded Khrushchev to withdraw Soviet troops.

Khrushchev was prepared to accept these reforms if they calmed the unrest in Hungary.

Question 27

What was the impact of the Hungarian Uprising on international relations?

Answer 27

Khrushchev also became more confident in dealing with the USA because he now knew they were unlikely to risk taking military action.

The failure of this event reflected badly on the West.

The USA and its allies encouraged communist countries to stand up to the SU,but weren’t prepared to back up their words with military support.

Question 28

What was the impact of the Hungarian Uprising on international relations?
(2)

Answer 28

Even though the USA didn’t take military action,it strongly opposed the invasion of Hungary.

Khrushchev’s crackdown soured relations between the 2 superpowers once more.

Frendlier relations at the Geneva Summit had looked like a thaw in the Cold War.

But it was short lived and the events of the 1960s would make the Cold War even colder.