The End of the Grand Alliance

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  • The End of the Grand Alliance
    • Churchill
      • Germany should be rebuilt
    • Roosevelt
      • Europe should be democratic (difference political parties working together to win voters' support in free elections)
      • USA was first to build atomic bomb (an unbeatable advantage until USSR caught up in 1949)
      • Soviet Union did not do what was agreed with Poland
        • Government was supposed to include multiple political parties but only had a communist party
    • Stalin
      • Germany to pay reparations - never strong enough to start a war again
      • Europe should be democratic (communism truly represented workers)
    • Post German surrender (May 1945), Grand Alliance started to come to an end
      • Roosevelt was the key figure holding the alliance together (US and USSR could work together through UN)
        • Successor Truman. like Churchill, was more suspicious of the Soviet Union and this increased tension between the Allies
    • USA dropped atomic bombs in Japan - Aug 1945 - (huge military advantage)
      • Roosevelt was prepared to work with Stalin but died (Apr 1945), replaced by Truman (much less trust after Poland incident) - atomic bomb meant he could push Stalin around at Potsdam
        • Stalin disliked Truman pushing him around at Potsdam
          • Increased tensions between the superpowers and the start of the Cold War.
            • Britain had been on winning side but was economically exhausted - unable to stand up to the Soviet Union on its own, only an ally of US. Cold War became increasingly about the relationship between the US and the USSR

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