Who was to blame for the cold war Flashcards
What was agreed at the Yalta Conference
1) USSR to help the US in Japan after Germany is defeated
2) Germany to be divided in to four zones and Berlin to be divided in to four zones
3) agreed to track down people responsible for concentration camps
4) Liberated countries would have free elections to choose the governments they wanted
5) The big Three all agreed to join the UN
6) Big three agreed Eastern Europe was to be a soviet sphere of influence
7) only disagreement was other the border of Poland
What happened in the 5 months after Yalta and before Potsdam which increased tension
1) Stalin’s armies of occupation had turned into armies of occupation
2) America had a new president (12th April 1945 Roosevelt died) Truman replaced him and was very different and much more anti communist and distrusted Stalin
3) The Allies had tested an atomic bomb Truman told Stalin about it at the start of Potsdam
Who replaced Winston Churchill as prime minister in 1945
it was midway through the Potsdam conference when Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee
What were the main disagreements at Potsdam
1) Stalin wanted to cripple Germany and protect USSR against future threats, however Truman didn’t want to repeat the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles
2) Disagreement over reparations
20million Russians had died in the war and Stalin wanted Germany to pay, but again Truman was worried about what happened as a result of the treaty
soviet expansion into eastern Europe
Stalin was determined not to let the USSR get attacked again, so he set up a buffer between western and eastern Europe
what was cominform
organisation setup by stalin to coordinate the work of the communist parties of eastern Europe, it also allowed Stalin to remove anyone communist leader who he felt threatened his European sphere of influence
